Finnick and Annie
by AlexMichele
Summary: This is a story of Finnick and Annie and how they came to be. Alternating Points of view. Slightly AU in places. Alternate Mockingjay ending. Rated T cause its the Hunger Games
1. Finnick's POV 1

Finnicks POV:

It's early in the morning and I'm awoken by something hitting my window. At first I wonder if it's raining out and I don't get out of bed. It happens again and again at irregular intervals. I hear a small voice,

"Damnit Finnick wake up!" it says, and then seconds later more things hit the window. I recognize that voice. I'd be able to pick it out of the crowd of Capitol woman who usually surround me. She's been my best friend since I was twelve. I open the window and am hit in the face with what I now realize are pebbles.

"Ow Annie, watch it!" I say down to her. Annie is standing outside my house throwing pebbles at my window to wake me up.

"What are you doing outside after dark? You know that Peacekeepers patrol the District at night," I say to her. They don't patrol the Victors Village except during the time of the reaping, but the rest of the District is patrolled rather heavily.

"Come down here, I don't want to wake your mother," she says looking up at me. I nod my head and move down the stairs. I don't want to wake my mother either. She never has been my favorite person. She never liked me much and only tolerated me while dad was around because I'm their only child now. Dad was distraught when I was reaped and he died shortly after I won. Mom and I do our own things and only talk when we have to.

"Annie," I say closing the door behind me quietly. She waits until I've turned to face her and the door is closed before she throws herself at me. I wrap my arms around her too.

"I can't sleep Fin, I'm scared," she says. It's the early morning of the Reaping. She's sixteen this year. I remember how she and my dad were the only two who came to visit me when I was reaped four years ago. I've hated the reapings every year since then. Mentoring two children who won't come back, two children who you might happen to know, is awful.

"It's okay Annie, you're alright," I say comforting her. She still has three more reapings to get through before she's in the clear. She's never actually been scared of the reapings before. She looks up at me her bright green eyes sparkle in the moonlight. I've always loved the color of her eyes.

"What happens if I'm reaped this year Fin?" she asks.

"I don't know. I wish I could say that you won't, but no one knows until they call. I promise I'll do whatever I can do keep you alive," I say. I will. I can't lose her. I don't know what brings me to do so, but I lean forward and kiss her. When I pull away I see the tears in the corner of her eyes. I reach up and wipe them before they fall. She closes her eyes and leans into my hand.

"If you get reaped I will do whatever I can to keep you alive as long as your promise to try to stay alive yourself. I can't control the other tributes. Come on, let's go inside, you should sleep and try not to worry about it. We won't know until later anyways." I take her hand and quietly we enter the dark living room.

"I'll go get a blanket," I say as our eyes adjust. She makes her way to the couch as I find the linen closet and pull out my dad's favorite blanket. Mom put it away when dad died.

"Fin?" she asks from across the room. "Will you stay down here with me?" she asks as I reach her.

"Of course," I say. I lay down and she snuggles against me. "Try to sleep, it's going to be okay," I tell her as I kiss the top of her head.

~HG~HG~HG~

A few hours later we're woken by a knock on the front door. I glance at my watch. Its nine thirty. The Peacekeepers have come to get me ready for today's reaping. Even as a Victor I can't escape the Capitol.

"Go back to sleep Annie," I say as I get up from the couch. She lies back down and I wrap the blanket around her. "I'll see you in a few hours." I open the door to tell them I'll just be another moment, and then run upstairs for a change of clothes and some shoes.

It's a very boring day for me. I have the other District 4 Victor, Mags, to keep me company. She was my mentor. She's probably in her sixty or seventies by this point, but she still runs strong.

"I do hope that maybe this year 4 will bring home a Victor," she says as we walk out onto the stage where a crowd is already gathering as the people of District 4 check in and the children move to their sections. It's sad to watch parents leave their children. None of them know which two will no longer be a part of District 4, and they're all hoping it isn't them. I turn away from the twelve year old section and train my eyes on the sixteen year olds looking for Annie.

"Stop looking," Mags hits my arm. I know she's telling me to stop looking for Annie. The Capitol is vicious to the Districts, but even more so to the Victors. Anyone who we care about is at risk for death at any given time. Luckily, that isn't how my father went. They know my mom and I don't care too much for one another so they've left her alone. If they did something to Annie though, I don't know that I could be forgiving. It's one thing that Snow's put me through being a toy for women to play with, but it's something different for him to mess with her.

"You look then," I say to Mags. I just want to make sure she's alright. I watch Mags scan the crowd. She's good at keeping her emotions in and not letting the Capitol into her head. I see when she spots Annie because her eyes soften.

"Looks relaxed and calm for now," Mags reports looking at me. I don't know if I'll be able to refrain from looking for Annie myself when Kelly comes on. Kelly is District 4's Capitol escort. She's tall and skinny, she has long platinum blonde hair with different colors thrown in a random order and pattern throughout it, she cakes her face with makeup like all Capitol people do, and she's got bright yellow star earrings hanging from her ears today. Her dress and four inch heels are also bright yellow.

Mags and I continue making small talk while we wait on Kelly and the rest of District 4 to arrive to the square. It's a hot morning already and I don't want to think about how much hotter the District will get as the day progresses. All I can think about is just behind me in the Justice Building there is air-conditioning that soon will envelop me.

"Finnick, you have got to stop daydreaming," Mags says breaking through my thoughts.

"Sorry Mags, I had a long night," I reply. She raises her eyebrow at me but doesn't question.

When her eyes look out to Annie and then they find my face again all I can do is nod. She's good at reading emotions off of others too. I know that Annie probably isn't calm and relaxed, but Mags told me that so I'd stop worrying. I won't be able to stop worrying until after this is over.

"Hello Mags, Finnick, you're both looking lovely today," Kelly says coming forth and shaking our hands. The Peacekeepers put the two large glass balls on stands to the left and right of where Kelly is about to be standing.

"Hey Kelly," I say flashing one of my charming smiles at her. She's one of the few Capitol women who don't use me as their play toy.

"Ready to get this over with?" she smiles back. I nod my head. As she steps forward to announce that the Capitol video is going to play, Mags takes and squeezes my hand. I don't plan on letting go.

I look to the screen and my eyes see the video. My brain is focused on so much more. I just want this to hurry up so that I can get on with my life. When it goes off, three and a half minutes later, Kelly smiles at the crowd.

"Now is the time where we will select one male, and one female, to represent District 4 in the 70th Hunger Games!" she says enthusiastically. I grip Mags' hand even harder and my heart picks up the pace as Kelly pulls a slip of paper from the female glass ball.

"Annie Cresta!" she calls. No. Not Annie. She didn't say Annie. I have to be dreaming.

"Finnick," Mags says calmly, trying to pull her hand out of mine. I let go of her hand and my last source of comfort has left me. I see Annie's face as the crowd moves out of her way and she makes her way toward the stage. It's the same fear that I saw in her face last night. The same fear that compelled me to kiss her just to make it all okay. I think back to all the promises I've made her. The first being that I'd come home from the 65th Hunger Games just for her. She was only twelve then and I was only fourteen. The last promise I made to her was just last night. From the first one to all the promises I made to her after that, I've never broken one of them. She will come back to District 4 alive. I'll make sure of that.

Annie walks up on the stage and I see her hesitate and resist not looking at me. She knows she can't afford to set the Capitol off. When she gets there, Kelly claps her hands together. It makes me want to punch her. Mags places her hand on my knee to help calm me.

"Michael Williams!" I hear Kelly call. There's anguish in the air as a small, fragile, twelve year old boy trudges toward the stage slowly. When he gets there, Kelly welcomes them and congratulates them for being chosen to represent their District. They shake hands and Kelly dismisses the District with the trademark:

"May the odds be ever in your favor!" we all know they won't be. She leads Annie and Michael into the Justice Building and Mags and I get up and follow. Annie's in the room on the left, and Michael the room on the right. They will now await their family and friends to say their goodbyes. I continue walking past Annie's door. This isn't goodbye. I'll have a whole week to say goodbye to her. Mags and I are released to go to our homes to get the belongings we'll be taking on this trip and move them into our train compartments. District 4 is an overnight ride to the Capitol.

Once I've put my stuff in my compartment, Mags is waiting for me just outside the train. She takes my face in her hands. I'm taller than she is so she has to pull me down to her level.

"Listen up Odair, you have to be careful how you go about saving her life. I'll help you the best that I can, but if you mess up again like you did a while ago with your reaction to her name being called, the Capitol will see to it that she's the first one dead after the bloodbath." She says to me. She never calls me by my last name unless she's past the point of seriousness, which isn't often.

"Let's go get our tributes," she says, taking my arm instead of my hand.

"I'm sorry about your hand Mags," I say.

"It's alright boy, just work on controlling your emotions. Remember that from here on out, anything you say to her, anything you do to her, every touch you make, every eye contact you make, will be heard and recorded. They will use it against you." I want to cry at this. I don't want to mentor my best friend. The girl who I'm pretty sure I've fallen in love with. I don't know what I'd do without her.

When we finally get the chance to "meet" our tributes, Annie makes a beeline for me. I don't object to her wrapping her arms around my waist and breaking down into sobs. Sobs that are so loud and so nerve wracking that Michael begins to cry, and even I can't stop a few tears from running down my face.

"It's okay Annie, it's okay," I say as comfortingly as I can. I look up to see Mags glaring at me. I've screwed up again.

"Alright, well, you're not allowed to take anything with you since one, if not both of you, won't be returning, there isn't any point. Get the tears out of your systems now, so that you at least look brave to the cameras that are going to be waiting outside watching you depart District 4," Mags tells us. She's looking at me when she says it, so I know I'm included. I'm Finnick Odair for goodness sake. After all I've been through with the Capitol, videos of me crying over this year's tributes would not look good for anyone.

Mags finally sits down with Michael and comforts him until all his tears are gone. I bury my face in Annie's hair and try to stay strong for her. I hold her close and dread the moment I'll have to put some distance between us. That moment comes sooner than any of us would like.

Kelly comes in after twenty minutes and tells us that the train is almost ready for us. Unfortunately she sees Annie and I wrapped up in each other's arms. I've been able to regain my composition, and it doesn't look like I was crying or upset at all. The way that I'm holding her says that I mean more to her than just her mentor. It says that she means something to me.

"You have five minutes before the Peacekeepers will be here to escort us to the train," she says looking at me. I know she knows about Annie. While she doesn't use me for sex, she gets to know me for who I am. Until I see the shock, followed by sorrow and pity, cross her face, I realize that before now, she never put together that this is my Annie. This is the best friend that I've told her about. This is the girl that last time Kelly and I spoke, I was told I should capture and keep safe. Now, the chances of me being able to do so are one in twenty four. I turn back to Annie and put my hands on her shoulder pushing her away from me a little bit.

"I have never broken a promise to you. You know that right?" I whisper to her. I rest my forehead against hers and her teary green eyes are looking into my sea foam green ones. I see her think about all the promises I've made, and she finds that I'm right.

"I don't plan on this being the first one I break." I tell her. If it weren't for the other three people in the room with us, I might have kissed her again just to prove my point. I pull her in for another hug instead before I let her go.

"Here dear," Kelly says, extending her the hand towel that was lying across one of the chairs. "You might want to wipe your face before they get here."

* * *

**Authors Note: **I'm doing this in a Finnick POV and then Annie POV. Annie's POV is going to sound similar to Finnick's and a few places here and there the lines are the exact same (like conversations they had between one another)

I also would like to add, I'm not spending much time doing Annie's games. It's not what i really wanted to focus on  
I really like Finnick/Annie so whenever i get around to the Mockingjay part, I'm going to say right now that i cannot kill Finnick off. :/ i love him and their relationship wayy too much to do that. And, its fanfiction. :)

Of course, credit for these amazing and wonderful and lovable characters all belongs to Susanne Collins. While i dont agree with killing Finnick, she still created them and did what she wanted with them.


	2. Annie's POV 1

Annie's POV

I have a bad feeling about this. I know that something bad is going to happen at the reaping tomorrow and I can't sleep. There's only one person I want to see right now, and he lives across the town in the Victor's Village. I know that District 4 is patrolled rather heavily by peacekeepers at night because they don't want anyone going down to the ocean in the middle of the night. It isn't the ocean where I want to go through. I quietly slip out of my house without waking my parents. They probably wouldn't let me go if they knew what I was doing. I keep an eye out for peacekeepers and I take all the back ways and roads that I know.

Finnick and I used to sneak out and meet up half way at night after he became a victor of the Hunger Games. I make it to our half way point which is a little shack in the woods. It's been here for as long as I can remember. I quietly check the area for peacekeepers and I stop and rest in here for a few minutes. It's been a few weeks since we've been here. District 4 is a career district. They train us for the Hunger Games like it's some kind of honor. I've been training with my dad for weeks and I'm usually exhausted by now.

After what seemed to me like ten minutes, I set off again. I knew I was about to cross into the Victors Village when I saw lines of peacekeepers. Of course. The night and morning of the reaping they'd be patrolling the Victor's Village. Finnick's house is just in my sightline when I have to duck into a bush to keep from getting spotted.

"It was probably just a rabbit Mitt, there isn't anyone who's stupid enough to get this far and break in. We're only doing this to keep the capitol happy. Keep walking," a voice says. A light shines on the ground beside the bush I'm in and I sincerely hope that they don't decide to check the bush and that Mitt would agree that I'm only an animal. I wait until I hear their footsteps retreat before I climb out. I try to be quiet about it but my foot gets caught and I end up making more noise than I'd hoped. Luckily, I was able to continue to make a run for it until I get to Finnick's house. His bedroom window happens to be on the side of the house where it's easier not to be spotted by a peacekeeper.

I look around and wonder what I can throw at the window to wake him up. His only neighbor, Mags, has a small garden in the front of her house. I go around and collect handfuls of pebbles to throw. I go back and throw them at his window. I've been out here for a while now and I'm starting to get scared that he's not home. I don't know why he'd be in the capitol on a night like this.

"Damnit Finnick, wake up!" I say more to myself than anything. I chuck one last handful at the window and look at the ground.

"Ow Annie, watch it," I hear Finnick's voice. I look up at him. Finally. He tells me it wasn't smart of me to come because I know that peacekeepers patrol the district at night. Of course I know this, I just escaped one of them.

"Come down, I don't want to wake your mother," I say up to him. His mother hates him. She hates me even more. I miss the days when his dad was alive. His dad kept the peace between Finnick's mother and the rest of us. I cried as much as Finnick did when Mr. Odair died.

I walk around to the front door as I watch him leave his window. I wait patiently for him to come out, and when he does I wait until the door is closed and he's facing me. I throw myself into his arms and suddenly I feel safer than I have in days. I love the way he smells and the fact that no matter what happens he'll always be my best friend, who will be here to comfort me when I need him.

"I can't sleep Fin, I'm scared," This year I'm sixteen years old. Obviously I've never been reaped but for some reason I have a feeling that it'll be my name that they call this year. I can't shake the feeling.

"It's okay Annie, you're alright," he says holding me a little closer. I pick my head up off his chest and look up into his sea foam green eyes.

"What happens if I'm reaped this year Fin?" I ask. He looks at me and hesitates before answering.

"I don't know. I wish I could say that you won't, but no one knows until they call. I promise I'll do whatever I can to keep you alive," What could he do to keep me alive? I'll have to survive on my own. He won't be able to fight for me in the arena. Before I can even think twice his lips find mine. It's only for a moment, but a kiss is a kiss. Tears come to the corner of my eyes when he pulls away, and he reaches to dry them before they fall. I lean into his hand and close my eyes. I don't know how I'm supposed to feel now. He's been my best friend since I was ten and he was twelve. I don't know when it happened but I eventually developed further feelings for him. I don't want to scare him off, so I haven't said anything and I've been okay with having him as my best friend.

"If you get reaped, I will do whatever I can to keep you alive as long as you promise to try to stay alive yourself. I can't control the other tributes. Come on, let's go inside, you should sleep and try not to worry about it. We won't know till later anyways," he says. He takes my hand and we enter the house.

It's dark in here because the moon's light doesn't penetrate through the curtains. I know this room like the back of my hand though. I'm not worried about the dark.

"I'll go get a blanket," he says. I make my way to the couch and he makes his way to the closet after a blanket.

"Fin? Will you stay down here with me?" I ask. I don't want to be left alone. He is the whole reason I came over. I always feel better when I'm with him.

"Of course," he says. He lies down on the couch and I move to snuggle into him. "Try to sleep, it's going to be okay," he says and kisses the top of my head. He wraps the blanket around us and his arms around me. I'm asleep within minutes.

~HG~HG~HG~

I don't know what time it was when I made it to Finnick's, or what time it was when we went to sleep. I don't know what time it is now when there's a knock on the door that wakes us. It's so nice to wake up in Finnick's arms. I don't really want him to leave me but I know as well as he does that the peacekeepers need him now. He has to get ready for the reaping too, being a mentor and all.

"Go back to sleep Annie," Finnick says as he gets up. I slide into the place where he was laying that's still as warm as he is. He wraps the blanket around me and I close my eyes again. I'm not going to be able to go back to sleep but I pretend to for now. "I'll see you in a few hours," he says. I wish he'd kiss my head again but he doesn't. I hear him open the door and I crack an eye open to see that he's opened it just enough where they won't be able to see in and see me. I hear him tell them he'll be out in a minute because he's not quite done getting ready. He runs up the stairs and I burry my face into his pillow. It smells like him.

I get up after he's left and I make my way up to his room. I don't really want his mom to come down and find me asleep on their couch. I also know where he keeps different stashes of food that his mother doesn't know about. He doesn't like to eat with her. I don't blame him. If she knew there was food in his room, even though he's eighteen now she'd still freak out. He tells her that he's not hungry and she thinks that he doesn't eat right. I know he does. He brings back food from the capitol and shares it with me sometimes. The only thing he doesn't like to share with me often are his sugar cubes. He eats those things like candy, and I love to mess with him about it.

I glance at the clock on his table. It's a little after nine. The District doesn't have to be down to the square for another hour, so I climb up into Finnick's bed. His smell engulfs me and calms me more. I know I'm going to be losing my mind in a few hours. At about nine-thirty, I slip out of his house without being noticed and make my way back to mine. I have to get ready for the reaping and I don't want my parents to worry and think I was kidnapped.

When I get there, that's exactly what they're doing and thinking. They bombard me with hugs and questions, wanting to know where I was and what I had been doing. I tell them I'd gone to Finnick's house last night. They aren't very happy about it, but they are relieved that I hadn't been kidnapped.

Walking between my parents we go down to the square together. While I was in Finnick's room, I'd taken one of his scarfs that I can slip around my neck and it would be hidden by my dress. It's my favorite one he has and he always let me wear it when we were together during the winter. When it comes time, I leave my parents and find another friend of mine, Kayla Tillman. She and I have known each other forever but we've never really been close friends. She hugs me and together we join the other sixteen year olds to wait for District 4's capitol escort, Kelly. I see Finnick up on the stage with Mags. He's looking for me. I can see that. I want to wave at him, to get his attention, but I don't. Kayla takes my hand.

"I'm really nervous Annie, what if they call someone we know, or worse, one of us?" she says.

"I don't know Kayla. It'll all be over soon. I'm scared too," I tell her returning her squeeze. I see Mags looking for me, and when she spots me and makes eye contact, I give her a weak smile.

It's already getting hot out here. My neck is starting to sweat under the scarf. Kayla and I make other small talk while we wait, and finally Kelly comes on to announce that it's time for the Districts versus Capitol video. For the next three and a half minutes I study Finnick's face. I don't think he's found me yet, or else I'd have made eye contact with him already. He looks scared.

When Kelly starts talking my heart speeds up. This is it. We're about to find out who the tributes for the 70th Games are. I close my eyes and Kayla squeezes my hand harder. I don't mind, I squeeze back just as hard.

"Annie Cresta!" Kelly calls. Now I think my heart is about to explode. I take one final glance at Finnick for now, and he looks ready to rip someone's head off. Once I get to a certain point, I make myself not look at him for fear that the capitol might see something they could use against me, or worse, against him. Once I'm up on the stage, Kelly greets me and moves to call the boy tribute.

"Michael Williams!" the crowd falls even more silent than they already were. Michael is a little twelve year old boy. My heart breaks as I think I might have to be the one who kills him. I really hope that he's the Victor. Or that I don't have to kill him. Kelly talks for another moment, asks Michael and I to shake hands, and then leaves District 4 with the trademark:

"May the odds be ever in your favor!" We are now led to rooms inside the justice building where we'll await our families to say goodbye. My first visitor is Kayla, of all people.

"Annie!" she shrieks. She has tears running down her face. I hug her as she cries. "Annie, I'm so sorry that it had to be you. You're one of the best friends I've ever had. I'm going to miss you so much. You don't deserve a fate like this. None of us do, but you, and Michael really, are so innocent. You've never done anything wrong!" she sobs.

_No, nothing wrong. Except fall in love with Finnick Odair._ I think. I don't know how I'm going to have to break that to him. I wonder if he loves me too. The peacekeepers come and have to rip Kayla from me. She's been a good friend too.

"It'll be okay Kayla, thanks for being my friend too. I'll come home and see you again!" my parting words. I said them so honestly. I don't know that I'll be able to stick to those words.

My next visitors are my parents. They too are crying.

"Annie, I love you so much," my mom sobs and clings to me much like Kayla did.

"I love you both more than I've ever told you," I say hugging her back and looking at my dad. I have never seen my dad cry. The sight of tears falling down his face is enough to bring the tears in my eyes fall. My mom hugs me tightly one last time so that my dad has time to hug me too. I almost run into his arms.

"I'm going to fight." I tell them. "I love you." The peacekeepers come and unwillingly they too leave the room. I half expect that Finnick will come say goodbye, and when the peacekeepers bring Michael into my room, I see that he has been crying, and Finnick isn't going to come say goodbye to me on his own. However when they bring him and Mags in to "collect us," the first thing I do is run into his arms. When he wraps his arms around me I can't help but to start sobbing.

"It's okay Annie, it's okay," he says soothingly.

"Alright, well, you're not allowed to take anything with you since one, if not both of you, won't be returning. There isn't any point. Get the tears out of your systems now so that you at least look brave to the cameras that are going to be waiting outside watching you depart District 4," Mags says. Finnick still holds me as my sobs quiet down into normal tears. I'm pretty sure I've stained his shirt. He buries his face in my hair and my heart hurts because I love him and this is probably the last time he'll ever be able to hold me like this.

It feels like it's been forever when Kelly comes in and announces that the train is almost ready for departure.

"You have five minutes before the peacekeepers will be here to escort us to the train," Finnick pulls away from me. He puts his hands on his shoulders and looks into my eyes.

"I have never broken a promise to you. You know that right?" he whispers. I think back to all the promises he's ever made me. The time we climbed up into a tree over the water and we were going to jump into the lake and swim. I was so scared I couldn't jump. He promised me he would catch me even though we were only kids and the water was at least twenty feet deep. I closed my eyes and jumped almost straight into his arms.

The time he promised me that he'd come home from the 65th games, just five years ago. He did come back. Or the time he promised that I was going to be okay and he was going to return with help after the tree had fallen on me and crushed my entire leg. I was in a cast for eight weeks after they'd put a rod in my leg because the bone shattered. He was right. There wasn't a single promise he'd ever broken.

"I don't plan on this being the first one I break," he says. He hesitates. I think he was going to kiss me. I wish he did. Instead, he pulls me in for a final hug and then lets me go.

"Here dear," Kelly says handing me a towel. "You might want to wipe your face before they get here," she says. This isn't going to be easy.


	3. Finnick's POV 2

Finnick's POV

Once we're on the train, and the cameras have had their paparazzi time, we sit down for dinner. I watch Annie and Michael eat. Annie knows how good the Capitol food is because sometimes I sneak enough back and share with her. Michael however, has never tasted the delicacies on the table before us. Annie is sitting across from me. My foot finds hers under the table and I lock my ankle around hers. She smiles at the gesture. Michael looks a lot more calm and relaxed than he did earlier. Before dinner Mags spent a while talking to him while Annie and I had spent time holding hands and watching the scenery change before us. Neither of us said anything.

"So, we get a whole week with the two of you to help you continue to get ready for this. Now, District 4 is a career District as you both know, so I'm sure you've both spent time already training for this right?" I ask. I know Annie has, I've helped her train before. This is more of a question for Michael.

"Yeah, my dad and I spent all of the last year training. He's taught me some of the neatest things." Michael smiles brightly.

"I've spent all summer getting ready," Annie says. She answers it more for Mags benefit.

"Good, once we get to the Capitol, they'll send you to the Remake Center, where they'll prepare you to meet your stylists. The stylists will also have some time to work with you over the course of the week. They'll prepare you for the opening ceremony, as well as just before the Games."

"Are they going to be as nice as you two?" Michael asks timidly.

"They'll probably look strange, but most Capitol people are nice." I answer. Most Capitol people are nice anyways. Really the evil ones are right at the heart, where Snow resides. I hate him for what he's done to me. I hate him even more now that he's trying to take Annie from me too. I'll show him. She'll come home, because I'll be sure of it. I can't live my life without her.

Dinner goes on and we're directed to the sleeping cart. Michael and Annie have the rooms across from Mags and me. Annie's is across from Mags, and Michael's is across from mine. Once the two of them are in their rooms, before I can open the door and go into my own, Mags puts her hand on my arm.

"Remember, be careful. All those Capitol woman who think they're yours won't be inclined to help you if they think you're only doing it to bring Annie out alive. Also keep in mind that sometimes, the tributes that have the most peace, and who are the safest, are those who die. Victors are never safe from the Capitol. We're always in more danger than normal District citizens. You know that, so don't forget it," she says and then turns to leave me standing in the hall.

I try to sleep in the muggy bedroom that I've been given for the train ride, but I can't help but to keep tossing and turning. I wish that it was safe enough to check and see how Annie's holding up, but there are cameras everywhere. If she comes in here, or I go in there, the Capitol will notice. We've already let them in on too much as it is.

At a little after seven, there's a knock on my door.

"Come in" I shout. It's only Mags.

"Breakfast," she says popping her head through the frame and looking at me. She hesitates before she comes in and shuts the door behind her.

"You look like hell Odair. Didn't you sleep at all?" she asks.

"No," I reply, as I turn over for the ten thousandth time and put my face in my pillow.

"It's going to be okay Finnick, you just have to stay strong. You've managed to do it in the years past," she says.

"Because it wasn't my best friend, or the girl I love, whose life was on the line!" I shout at Mags as I turn my head to look at her. No sleep makes me cranky.

"You're in love with her," Mags says. "That explains a lot." I glare at her.

"I don't know how to tell her. I don't know if she loves me back. She's going to die Mags," I say. Tears spring to my eyes.

"You promised her you'd bring her home. I'll help you the best that I can. I fell in love with a tribute once," she sits down on the edge of my bed and starts to rub my back.

"It was the third year I was mentoring, and he had been my best friend for years. He was seventeen and I was nineteen. I did everything that I could to keep him alive in that arena. It came down to him and the boy from District 3. Beetee I think was his name. Beetee had some crazy skills, and Josh just wasn't any match for him." I could hear the tears in her voice.

"I made a promise to myself to never fall in love with a tribute again. I stuck to that promise until you came along," she chuckled and I stopped breathing. "Don't worry boy, I was never_ in_ love with you. You know that I love you though. You became the son I never had. When it came down to you and the last tribute, I thought for sure you were done for. Had you died, I would have been alright compared to when Josh died. But you survived because you've always been a fighter. I hope you don't mind that I still think of you as my son," she says. I roll over and sit up so I can hug the old woman.

"You've always been like a mother to me, or really a grandmother because you're so much older than me," we both laugh.

"It's a good thing we're both on the same page there kiddo," she says ruffling my hair. I stick my tongue out at her. "Come on, let's go have breakfast before the other two think something's happened to us," she smiles and extends her hand.

~HG~HG~HG~

After we get to see Michael and Annie for the first time after they've been through the remake center, I almost have to refrain from gawking at just how much more beautiful Annie is. While I really like the new look the Capitol has given her, it makes me appreciate the old Annie. When she sees me, she gives me a small smile and I pull her in for a hug.

"Aren't you a beauty," I say in a joke like manner, even though I'm serious. I know she'll pick up on it.

"I'm as every bit as beautiful as you are," she laughs.

"I've always known I'm beautiful, now you know that you are too,"

"Finnick," Mags says from across the room. I look at her. Her eyes tell me I should stop flirting.

The day progresses in a boring fashion. Michael and Annie meet their stylists and start planning the outfits for the opening ceremony tomorrow night. It takes District 12 two days to get here so the Districts that are closer to the Capitol have extra time.

"I'm going to be a mermaid!" Annie complains at dinner that night. I can't help but to chuckle. Annie, my little mermaid.

"They want to make me a merman, Annie. Complete with the trident." Michael sticks his tongue out.

"Oh yeah, I get the cute shell and pearl too." She doesn't look happy.

"Be happy you're not from 12, they're coal miners," Mags speaks up.

"I think the mermaid idea is a good one. Better than the one I had," I scrunch my face at the memory. "My District partner was dressed like a hooker in fishnets. I was dressed in fishnets too, but I had more of my body covered than she did." I look directly at Annie, pick up a sugar cube and pop it in my drink. Instant smile. She shakes her head as I pick up the glass and take a sip from it.

After dinner we each go our own ways. Mags, Annie, and Michael go to their room. I go to my room too, but I'm not there but for a few hours. It's long enough to let Annie and Michael fall asleep. I make my way to the window in the living area and crack it open enough that I can fit out it. Since we're on the fourth floor, there's a small ledge that I climb out on. It's big enough to walk on, but if you're not careful you could fall off. Of course, there's a force field at the bottom of the second floor ledge, because tributes before me discovered you could jump out the window. If you hit the force field, it jets you back up through the window you came out of. They don't want you to die until you get into the arena.

I've been out on the ledge for ten minutes when I hear the window squeak. It's Annie.

"Hey mermaid," I say.

"Don't call me that," she says as she crawls over to me. She sits beside me and together we watch the moonlight.

"What's up?" I ask wrapping my arm around her.

"I can't sleep, I'm nervous," she says leaning into me.

"Nervous about what? 12 won't be here till tomorrow, and after that you have about two days before you'll go into training." I say.

"No, that's not what I'm nervous about," she says. "I have something to tell you. I don't know how to tell you or when it's appropriate to tell you if it ever will be."

"Annie," I use my other hand and lift her chin up so that she's looking at me and I'm looking at her. "I have something to tell you too then. Would you like me to tell you first?" I ask. I have an idea at what she wants to tell me and I'm curious as to if it's the same thing I want to tell her. There aren't any cameras out here because they have the force field and more than enough cameras on the inside. Annie nods her head. I take a deep breath before I begin. I don't know how this is going to turn out either.

"You've been my best friend since I was twelve years old. I don't know what I'm going to do if I lose you to these stupid Games, but I promised you, I'm going to bring you home out of this because I can't live without you. I don't know when it happened, but Annie, I've fallen in love with you," She doesn't say anything for a minute as she processes my words. It's enough of a silence to make me wonder if she wasn't about to tell me the same thing. She takes her hand and puts it on my cheek.

"I didn't think that you felt like that," she begins, "I don't know when it happened either, but I've fallen in love with you too," she smiles. This time, she's the one who kisses me. It's not just the soft, gentle, quick kiss that we shared just a few nights ago before the reaping. It's the way a first kiss should be. I pull her close and she wraps her arms around me tighter. When we pull away she's pretty much in my lap.

"I am going to get you out of there alive if I have to die for you," I tell her. There's no way I'm going to let her die now.

"I don't want you to die for me Finnick," she says and then she nestles her head into my neck and wraps her arms around my waist.

"If I have to, I will."

"I'm sorry this didn't happen sooner. It would have saved you the heartbreak," she says like that would make it better.

"No Annie, I'm glad it didn't happen sooner. It will be easier to get over the heartbreak now if I can't save you. But I'm going to save you. You are going to come back to me," I kiss the top of her head and tighten my arms around her. We sit there in silence and I think she's fallen asleep.

"Finnick, I can't find –" Mags sticks her head out the window. She knows this is where I go when I can't sleep. She must have found Annie's bed empty too, but now she sees her in my arms.

"She's alright," I smile and look down at her. She has fallen asleep because she doesn't stir. "Annie," I whisper waking her. "Come on kiddo, bed time," I say. She sits up and stretches and when I look back toward the window Mags is gone. Annie looks so sweet and innocent so I lean over and kiss her again. Even in her sleepy state she kisses me back.

"I love you," she says.

"I love you too. Come on before you fall off," I manage to get her in the window and to her bed. By the time her face hits the pillow she's fast asleep again.


	4. Annie's POV 2

Annie's POV

The cameras are vicious. They attack us from every angle once we leave the justice building, and all I want is to hold Finnick's hand. But Finnick is behind me. I can't touch him now when they're all watching. My hand finds Michael's. He looks up to me. He's so innocent and his cute face makes me want to cry again. He smiles slightly and doesn't flinch away from my hand.

Once we're on the train we find our rooms and then it's almost time for dinner. I've had the capitol food before because Finnick brings some home for me every now and then. The amount of food is a little overwhelming, but the taste is nothing new to me.

We have a little time to waste before dinner, so Mags takes Michael and they go off to chat leaving Finnick and I alone. We simply just hold hands and watch out the window. It's a very peaceful feeling and with his hand in mine, I know it's going to be okay, for now at least.

At dinner, I'm sitting across from Finnick who seems to be amused at Michael's reaction to the food. His foot finds mine under the table and gladly I allow him to lock it around my ankle. I smile at him.

"So, we get a whole week with the two of you to help you continue to get ready for this. Now District 4 is a career District as you both know, so I'm sure you've both spent time already training for this right?" Finnick asks. He knows I have, he's helped me train before. He's just doing his job as mentor.

"Yeah, my dad and I spent all of the last year training. He's taught me some of the neatest things." Michael smiles brightly.

"I've spent all summer getting ready," I say. I answer it more for Mags benefit.

"Good, once we get to the capitol they'll send you to the remake center where they'll prepare you to meet your stylists. The stylists will also have some time to work with you over the course of the week. They'll prepare you for the opening ceremony as well as just before the Games."

"Are they going to be as nice as you two?" Michael asks timidly.

"They'll probably look strange, but most capitol people are nice." Finnick answers. I feel him tense. I know he's not fond of the women there. Or of Snow. The women are usually all over him. I don't know what I'm going to do if I have to actually watch them touch him. The thought never crossed my mind until now and I'm ever so grateful for the foot that's locked with mine.

The rest of dinner is a quiet event. No one says anything further. After dinner we were allowed to go to our rooms. Michael and I have rooms on one side of the train, Finnick and Mags have rooms across from ours on the other side of the train. The rooms are not that big, they contain a bed and a dresser. There's a small bathroom off the side. I plop down on the bed. It's comfortable, but I still miss my bed at home. I'm here for a while, I try to sleep but I can't. I watch out the window again. Everything is so different at night. Eventually, watching the stars pass, puts me to sleep. In the floor of all places.

The next morning I awake from Mags sticking her head in the door and yelling "breakfast!" When she sees me in the floor she can't help but chuckle.

"Come on sleepy head, it's time to eat. You'd better get up and going before Finnick finds you like this," she says. My ears hear her say something about Finnick so I pull myself up out of the floor. She leaves the room and goes to probably wake Michael.

I sit on my bed long enough to wake up. When I leave my room to pass to the dining car I hear Finnick shout.

"Because it wasn't my best friend or the girl I love whose life was on the line!" I stop. Finnick loves me? I think my heart stops. I'm going to have to tell him now. I also want to hear him tell me himself. I probably wasn't meant to hear that. I make a dash for the dining car before they come out. I don't want them to know I heard that.

~HG~HG~HG~

The remake center is a very big, very open place. There are twelve cubicle sorts of rooms. One for each district. Each of those are split in half for each of the tributes. Michael and I are directed to District 4's cube. Being from District 4 where we swim all day and we're out and about for a good part of the day, we learned to start shaving at twelve. They don't have to pull too much hair off of my body. The small amount that they do, hurts. They scrub me raw and tie my hair up. I try not to complain when they're working, but it's not a pleasant feeling being scrubbed down like they're doing. When we're done and I'm finally allowed away from this torment, the first person I see is Finnick. I can't help but to smile at the way he's looking at me. He willingly hugs me.

"Aren't you a beauty," he says in a joking tone. I know he's teasing me but he's also serious. No one else would know that though.

"I'm every bit as beautiful as you are," I laugh teasing back.

"I've always known I'm beautiful, now you know that you are too," he smiles.

"Finnick," Mags calls. They exchange a look. He has to be careful.

Later that day we meet our prep teams. My stylist is a tall man named Carter. Such a plain name. The rest of the prep team is two women named Heidi and Asher. They all have odd features to them. Carter's eyelashes are bright blue and six inches longer than necessary. His hair is spiked with green and orange highlights. Heidi's hair is always done up in two braids and twirled together at the back in an intricate bun. Her makeup is chalk white and makes her look ghost like. Asher is my favorite as far as looks go. She's got a very plain face. Her pink eye shadow highlights the gold rings in her eyes. She has a line of flowers tattooed from the back of her neck up both sides to just behind their ears. The flowers are a mixture of white, blue, purple, and pink. Each one a different color. Their accents make me laugh. They sound every bit like Finnick's imitations.

They tell me that for the opening ceremony, they want me to be wearing a mermaid outfit. They assure me that I'll have a bra that covers me, but they're going to custom make me a tail. I am far from amused now. I don't want to be a mermaid. Sure, swimming is my strongest skill, Finnick calls me a mermaid every now and then when we're swimming together. He says it's the way my body moves through the water. I don't like this idea one bit. They make me dislike the idea even more when they tell me they're going to set me on a shell with a pearl. Michael gets to be my protective merman. He'll have legs though. This is stupid and unfair. Especially since I'm four years older than Michael. I'm supposed to protect him.

At dinner that night I am finally able to complain about it.

"I'm going to be a mermaid!" I say angrily. Finnick chuckles. I want to kick him, but yet again his feet are intertwined with mine.

"They want to make me a merman Annie. Complete with the trident," Michael sticks his tongue out.

"Oh yeah, I get the cute shell and pearl too." I'm not happy.

"Be happy you're not from 12, they're coal miners," Mags speaks up. That's true. I'd rather be a mermaid than a coal miner.

"I think the mermaid idea is a good one. Better than the one I had," Finnick's face twists in memory of it. "My District partner was dressed like a hooker in fishnets. I was dressed in fishnets too, but I had more of my body covered than she did." He looks at me, picks a sugar cube up, and throws it in his drink. I have to hold back a giggle. He knows his sugar cube obsession makes me laugh. I shake my head as he takes a sip of his drink.

After dinner we parted ways. I really just wanted to lie down and pass out until tomorrow. The bright lights from the capitol shinning in my window weren't helping me. I stay up and watch out the window for a few hours. When I look at the clock it's just after one in the morning. I am so tired but I'm not going to be able to sleep. After a while I just want to be outside this window. I want to be out there, see what's happening, hear what's happening, and feel the cool night air. I can't take being cooped up anymore. The only window that opens is the one in the living area. When I get there I see that the window has already been opened. I'm cautious as I go out it myself. I see it's only Finnick. The window squeaks as I open it a little further. He looks up at me.

"Hey mermaid," he says.

"Don't call me that," I crawl over to him afraid I'm going fall off. I sit beside him in silence for a few minutes.

"What's up?" he asks wrapping his arm around me. I naturally lean into him.

"I can't sleep, I'm nervous," I tell him. I wasn't nervous until I said it. I should tell him what I heard earlier. I should tell him that I love him too.

"It'll be fine, I'm fighting for you," he says.

"No, that's not what I'm nervous about," I pause. "I have something to tell you. I don't know how to tell you or when it's appropriate to tell you, if it ever will be." Suddenly I can't look at him.

"Annie," he lifts my chin up and I'm forced to look at him. He looks into my eyes for a moment.

"I have something to tell you too then. Would you like me to tell you first?" That surprises me. I nod my head. I don't want to miss this chance, but I'm interested to know if maybe he's going to tell me what I heard earlier. My heart beat picks up.

"You've been my best friend since I was twelve years old. I don't know what I'm going to do if I lose you to these stupid Games and I promised you I'm going to bring you home out of this because I can't live without you. I don't know when it happened, but Annie, I've fallen in love with you," He did. He told me what I heard. For a moment I don't say anything for shock that he admitted he loved me. I reach out and put my hand on his face.

"I didn't think you felt like that," well, I did know he felt like that, but I still don't want to tell him. "I don't know when it happened either, but I've fallen in love with you too," I can't help but to smile. The next thing I register doing is leaning over and kissing him. It's different than when he kissed me. There are more feelings behind this. He pulls me in closer and I don't mind. Somehow or another I end up in his lap. I don't mind this either.

"I am going to get you out of there alive if I have to die for you," Finnick says when we break.

"I don't want you to die for me Finnick," I nestle my head into his neck and wrap my arms around him. Suddenly, the Games are something distant. I could stay in this moment forever. It's going to be hard on us now.

If I have to, I will,"

"I'm sorry this didn't happen sooner. It would have saved you the heartbreak," Dying is going to break my heart too. I wish it would have happened sooner. I could have had more time with him.

"No Annie, I'm glad it didn't happen sooner. It will be easier to get over the heartbreak now if I can't save you. But I'm going to save you. You are going to come back to me," he kisses the top of my head and tightens his arms. I feel so safe, so comfortable. I fall asleep in his arms.

"Annie," he whispers. I stir. "Come on kiddo, bed time," I sit up and stretch. He used to call me kiddo when we were younger but as we grew older he grew out of calling me that. Before I can blink, Finnick's arms are around me keeping me from falling off, and his lips are on mine again. He tastes sweet. Like his sugar cubes.

"I love you," I tell him.

"I love you too. Come on before you fall off," he helps me get through the window and takes me into my room. I don't remember ever touching the bed, but the next morning when I wake, I remember every detail of the night.


	5. Finnick's POV 3

Finnick's POV

It was hard letting her go. Watching her go off with Carter was like watching my heart walk away. We stayed up late together on the roof holding each other last night, sharing more kisses and simply just being together. She almost convinced me that I wanted to go further with her, but after explaining to her that I wanted to wait, I wanted her to be my Annie, not just another girl, or woman, on my list of people I've slept with, she gave up. This is going to be a hard Game to watch.

She and Michael had made an alliance. When she wasn't spending time with me, she was spending time training with Michael. She was very fond of him, and during one of our long nights, she told me she wasn't sure she wanted to watch him die. He was like a little brother to her.

There were a few times when Annie or Michael would be hurt, I hate every minute of the exchange for supplies to send them. I don't want to sleep with these women anymore. I hate pretending, I just want this to be over. I want Annie. I have to remind myself that I'm doing this for her. This is all just so I can bring her home to me.

As the tributes dwindle down to the final eight, both Annie and Michael are still alive. I'm not sure how she is going to not watch him die if they stick together, but I still hope for her sake, that she doesn't have to watch. It's the middle of the night, and Michael pleads with Annie for her to climb the tree and sleep, even though it's her turn to keep watch tonight.

Finally after a few minutes of arguing, Annie agrees to let him take watch for the night. She isn't happy about it, but he isn't going to take no for an answer. She pulls him in for a hug before turning and climbing the tree. She climbs up it about half way and hollers down to ask if she can be seen. Michael walks around the tree a few times looking closely for her, but he yells back to tell her she's all set.

Mags and I are watching as it cuts to some of the others. Annie and Michael are the last District pair. This year's Games aren't as violent as the years before. Sure, the tributes killed each other, but they're taking a long time to do it. I'm almost positive the Gamemakers are going to intervene soon.

"I'm going to bed Finnick," Mags says. My eyes are focused on the screen. They've honed in on the girl from District 2. This girl has had it out for Annie from the start. She's not that far from where Annie and Michael are. Michael is armed with a small dagger, and their backpack contains another knife or two. Annie took to carrying around a spear. She always did love to try to out spear me when we used to fish together. The District 2 girl's weapon of choice is an axe.

"Wait," I say. She looks at the screen closer. This is it. One, or two, of the three of them are going to die. I don't know if I'll be able to watch this if this girl kills Annie. If this girl kills Annie and becomes the victor, I will get revenge. She's only fifteen, but she won't live to be seventeen if she kills my Annie.

"Finnick," Mags says. I look, and she realizes what I have just realized. We're about to lose one, if not both of our tributes. I stand and cross the room to her. I take her hand and lead her to the couch where I was sitting. We hold hands and watch in silence. Michael walks around a group of trees in circles. He tries not to hover too close to the tree that Annie is in, so that he won't give her away. That was something they decided together. The more trees they circled, the less likely they'd give away which tree the other was in. They also decided that should they be attacked, the other was not to come out of the tree and try to help. I know Annie only asked that because she thought she would be the one to be attacked. I don't think she's going to stay put.

The District 2 girl continues to get closer to Annie and Michael. When she finally spots Michael, she ducks behind one of the trees that he's not covering. She watches him make his rounds, and I see her plotting her next move. Michael makes the mistake of turning his back to the trees as he opens the backpack looking for something. I see Annie watching from the tree. She wanted to shout at him to start with, but when he turns his back, she snaps a tree branch and throws it at his head. It hits him.

"Ow Annie, what's that for?" he looks up. Another wrong move.

"Aren't you a cutie?" the girl from 2 finally reveals herself. Mags squeezes my hand. I'm pretty sure Michael's small dagger isn't going to be a match for her axe. "You have an adorable baby face, mind if I keep it? I'd hate to bloody it up." She smiles sadistically at him and raises her axe. Mags gets up and runs to the bathroom. She liked him as much as Annie does.

"Michael!" Annie shouts. No. She was fine in the tree. I think I might not be far behind Mags.

"Oh, your girlfriends around here watching. Don't worry, she's next,"

"Annie! Stay where you are! Don't hel –" District 2 whacks his head off. A canon instantly goes off. He didn't even try to defend himself.

"Alright refused to join us early on. I'd have killed you sooner than this of course, but it's alright. I'm going to kill you now. Come out and play!" she laughs sadistically. Annie grabs her spear and as soon as the girl looks up and turns at the right angle, the spear implants its self in her heart. Annie jumps down and takes the spear. The girl isn't dead yet. Annie spears the girls hand as she reaches for the axe, and then she herself takes the axe and decapitates the girl from 2.

When the canon goes off signaling the girl is dead, Annie kneels down by Michael's headless body and I watch her shake with sobs. She's still for a moment before she gets up and takes District 2's axe. She throws it into the nearest tree. The whole tree shakes and the axe isn't going to come out of it any time soon.

I'm not going to bed tonight. When the cameras cut to other tributes, I go and check on Mags.

"He's gone. Decapitated. Annie avenged him, don't worry," I tell the old woman. She's already been crying. I hug her tightly. She knows I want Annie to win, I know she wanted Michael to win. She knew that my love for Annie prevailed over Michael's life, and this was going to happen sooner or later. At least he made it this far.

I take Mags and tuck her into her bed. There's nothing more I'm going to be able to do for her until this is over. She probably won't watch the rest of the Games, if she even comes out of her room for anything.

When I get back to the living room, I see that it has started to rain. I knew the Gamemakers were going to step in. Nothing more happens tonight. They're down to the final seven. Only three more tributes need to die before the Gamemakers send out their worst.

~HG~HG~HG~

I fell asleep on the couch. I was right in my assumption that nothing else was going to happen overnight. Nothing but rain. The cameras are back on Annie when I wake. She's having nightmares and screaming Michael's name. I hear my name slip out once. That's not going to be good. I'm sure I'm not the only one who heard it. The Capitol people heard it too. One of the ladies who is a regular with me walks in about twenty minutes later.

"So your boy died last night." She says.

"Yeah, he did. Brave little one." I don't want to see her. This probably isn't going to end well.

"The girl lived,"

"She did." That was obvious.

"What is she to you, and why did she scream for you?" The woman is angry. She's going to be jealous because Annie screamed my name? I stand up and face her.

"That's my best friend in that arena. I would give both arms and both legs for that girl. I would even give my own life for her. I'm the only person who's ever really meant anything to her since her parents died a year ago!" I'm angry now. Annie's parents didn't really die. They're still alive. At least, I hope they are.

"Is that all she is?"

"Yes!" The screen shoots to Annie again after they watched the District 8 boy drown in the five feet of water. Annie is aimlessly floating around. After she stuck the axe in the tree she's done nothing. Nothing but breathe. She hasn't bothered picking up her spear and I'm afraid that if someone found her, she wouldn't defend herself. The Capitol woman comes and stands between me and the screen.

"I don't believe you," she says. I want to hit her, but I know if I do, I'll be in more trouble than I probably already am.

"Get out," I hear Mags say. She's talking to the woman. The woman looks at her, gives her the dirtiest glare I've seen, and stomps out.

"Don't worry about the ladies. I'll keep them out of here. Keep doing whatever you have to do to get Annie out of there alive. We have to show them that District 4 is better than this. We can't give up now just because Michael isn't going to return. He and Annie were the last paired District. We have to bring her home no matter what it takes." Mags says to me.

"I promised her I was going to bring her home. I'm not going to back down on that," I tell Mags. Annie will come home.

I hear a canon and my eyes go to the screen. Five tributes left and the rain has not let up yet. The water is about seven feet deep. I think that the Gamemakers are going to kill them all off with a flood. The last one to live will be the one who swims the best. Annie's been a mermaid all her life. Suddenly I get really excited. The tributes weren't doing a good enough job killing each other off themselves, so the Gamemakers are going to drown them. It'll make a boring ending for most people. But I hope that the people in 4 are now as hopeful as I am.

It's about five in the afternoon and the rain is still falling. It's really deep. I'm going to estimate that it's about fifteen feet deep now. It's up to the tree limbs. The tributes who can't swim climbed trees to take shelter. Annie has been swimming around for a while in a daze. Finally I see her have to climb onto a branch and rest her arms and legs. She's there, but when the camera shows her face, I don't see Annie. I see someone else. Someone lost, afraid, alone. Haunted. Just like the rest of us who come out of there alive. The lucky ones are those who die, but I just can't lose her. Not now, not ever.

Suddenly a canon goes off. Another tribute lost. Four more before this is over. I assume once it gets to the tops of the trees where the tributes won't have another refuge, they'll drown too. Within five minutes, there's another two canons. The camera's focus on the girl from 10 and the boy from 11. The girl is floating with a stick through her middle and the boy seems to have drowned after he stabbed her. There is Annie and one more left. The boy from 1 is in the top of a tree on the other side of the arena. He looks afraid. Suddenly I jump up.

"Mags! Mags!" I yell. I'm excited. Annie's going to win. Mags comes running in the room. The cameras have split so that we can watch both the boy, and Annie.

"There are two of them left," she says observantly.

"She's going to win!" I shout. "Look at the way he's holding himself! He can't swim, so when the water reaches him he's going to drown!"

"Calm down Finnick, she hasn't won yet," Mags says. I know she's excited too though.

"Hang in there Annie, you're gonna come home to me," I say to the screen.

"Finnick, go do something. Go take a nap, or eat, or shower. You've been glued to this screen all day, and you're driving me insane."

"I'm sorry. I can't help it," I say. She takes my hand and forces me to the table where there is food. It smells so good. She's right, I haven't eaten all day and I've been up since the crack of dawn. I realize that Annie hasn't eaten in a while either. It's been at least two days. I'm going to send her some of this. I package some of what I know are her favorites, and I even add a few sugar cubes to the top. I take them down to the center and get them to send it to her. They don't need to know that I'm the one who's sending it.

I make it back to the building where we've been staying in time to see the package make its way down to her.

"What is it?" Mags asks.

"Food. She hasn't eaten in days either. She can't swim well if she doesn't eat." It lands in one of the branches. Annie looks up at it and hesitates.

"Finnick, there's something wrong," Mags says. I had left the room to get a little more food myself.

"What? What's wrong?" I rush back in there. The package is still in the tree and Annie hasn't made much of a movement toward it. She continues to look at it like it's going to hurt her. I see her face again. It's the same face I saw earlier. That's not Annie anymore. I feel my heart break.

Finally after ten minutes, and another foot of water, she decides it's not going to hurt her and she climbs up to it. She opens the package and sees the food. She sees the sugar cubes and closes the box. She holds it to her chest and starts to sob. For the brief moment when she saw the sugar, her face lit up with recognition. I saw my Annie. It was only for a moment, and I'd have missed it if I wasn't looking.

At her actions, I sit down and pull my knees up to my chest and hide my face behind them. I too begin to sob. I hate them. I hate everything they've done to me, but even more for everything they've done to her. If they try to force her into something like they've done to me, I will hide her. We'll die together. I feel Mags rub my back.

"It's going to be okay Finnick. It's all going to be over soon. You'll have her back by tomorrow. The boy won't make it through the night." It's when she says this that the screen screams at us. I look up and see that Annie has dropped the food in the water and is holding onto her tree for dear life. It's the wind that's screaming. The boy had managed to fall asleep, and within minutes after the wind blows him out of the tree the canon sounds. The rain stops. It's over.

Caesar Flickman has been hosting these Games since before I was a tribute. His voice comes on the speaker.

"Ladies and gentleman, I present you the victor of the 70th Hunger Games! Annie Cresta!" the screen goes blank so I can't watch them rescue her from her personal hell.

"Get it out now, go wipe your face, they'll be here for us soon. Looks like you'll have her back tonight. Remember that there are cameras everywhere. The Capitol probably already knows your feelings for her. I wouldn't doubt that this place is bugged. Just keep it away from the crowds. Be careful how much you touch her before we get back here. I'll stall them if I need to. I'll tell them that you're in the shower if I have to. Go," she pushes me toward the bathroom.


	6. Annie's POV 3

Annie's POV

The last person I'm allowed to be with before I enter the arena is Carter. We're given a moment to ourselves before our mentors are supposed to take us to our stylists. I take my moment to close my eyes and remember last night. It was the happiest I've been in a while.

Finnick and I had stayed up late together on the roof. Kissing him is more than I ever imagined. I wanted more. I wanted him.

"_Please?" I ask. "I might not come back from this," this is my argument. _

"_You will come back, I promised remember?" he says between breaths and kisses. He doesn't pull back any. I'm sure he wants me as much as I want him.  
"Please Finnick?" I ask again._

"_Annie," he moans. I know he wants me. "I can't," I silence him by kissing him more. His shirt has already been discarded. He doesn't wear them that often anyways. I'm used to seeing his bare chest. It's when I try to go for his pants that he pushes me off of him. I'm completely shocked and I find myself crying. He pulls me back into his arms._

"_I can't Annie. That's all I ever do here in the capitol. All those women, they don't mean a thing to me. You mean the world. I can't do that to you. Not now. Yes, I love you, yes, I certainly want you, but I can't. I don't want you to just be another name on my list. I want you to be my Annie. One day, we will, but right now, you're about to go off to the Hunger Games. In the small chance that I can't save you, and we do something tonight, that's all you'll be, another name on my list. I don't want that," he's crying now too. After this we sit there crying together. _

I'm standing in my room this morning watching out the window as I remember what happened and what almost happened. I'm actually kinda grateful he stopped me. It will make things easier on us not to be bonded that close. I know he loves me, and for now, that's enough. I don't hear my door open or the footsteps cross over to me, but I jump when I feel arms snake around my waist and someone's breath and lips on my neck.

"Morning," Finnick says. I lean back into him.

"This is it huh? This is goodbye?" I ask. He pushes me forward enough to spin me around so I'm facing him and he kisses me hard.

"This is not the end Annie. It's just goodbye for now. I love you." He says when he pulls away.

"I love you too Finnick," I say. My arms are already around his neck but I pull him closer for another moment.

"Let's go," he says. We meet Carter in the lobby and from there, it's to the arena.

~HG~HG~HG~

Earlier in the week, Michael and I decided to make an alliance with each other and not with the other Careers. They're not pleased that we won't ally with them. Over the week I've grown close to Michael. I could imagine him as my little brother. I really hope I won't have to kill him or watch him die.

Once the games begin, somehow or another we manage to both get some supplies and survive the bloodbath. When I find him again hours later, I'm so happy. I hug him and let a few tears escape.

"I thought they'd gotten you," I say. By "they" I know he knows I meant the other careers.

"No, I'm fast Annie. You forgot that." He says sadly. I chuckle.  
"Come on kid, let's go find a safe place to see what we have,"

Occasionally another tribute crosses our path and tries to injure one of us. It's a shame to have to kill them to keep them from killing us. Michael doesn't like it any more than I do. Each time we're injured, Finnick and Mags always pull through to get us things to help. Sometimes they send food, but most of the time they send things that we need when we're injured. Every time, I can't help but to feel a tiny bit jealous at the thought of what Finnick must be doing in order to get us sponsors. I know he hates it. I hate it too.

It takes weeks before we're down to the final eight. There haven't been many killings, and they're usually spread out over a few days. Michael and I finally get tired of moving around and we find a patch of trees that we could stay in for a while. We take turns each night keeping watch. One of us sleeps high in the tree, the other keeps watch. It works out.

"I don't know Annie, what happens if someone attacks us in the middle of the night while the other person I sleeping?"

"If someone attacks us, the other will be safe in the tree. How about we don't come down and help. It'll also let the gamemakers see what we're individually made of." I say. Of course, I'm not going to stick to that. Michael insists that he'll start our watch tonight, and I can have the next watch. We've been here for days and there hasn't been another killing yet. I'm sure that something is going to happen soon.

"Annie, you should sleep tonight too," Michael says.

"You had last night's watch though," I tell him.

"I'm not tired. I had a nap today remember?"

"Still, you need sleep more than I do,"

"I'm not a baby Annie." He's offended at my comment.

"I'm not calling you a baby Michael. I know you're very capable, it's just my turn to take watch tonight. Why do you want to switch?" I ask.

"I don't know. I just feel like whatever is going to happen that if one of us wins this it should be you."

"Michael, you have the whole rest of your life ahead of you. Why do you want me to win? I want you to win." I tell him.

"You're pretty, you're smart, you have the boy you want right in the palm of your hand and he's fighting for you. He's not fighting for me. Don't try to tell me he cares if I live or not. I'm not stupid Annie." Tears come to my eyes.

"He cares if you live Michael, you're only human just like the rest of us and he knows that. He hates this as much as we do. You're smart and talented too you know." I tell him.

"Please Annie, let me take watch tonight," Nothing I say is going to change his mind.

"I care if you die Michael," I say before I step forward and hug him. I hug him tightly. When I finally let go of him I turn and make my way up the tree. For a moment Michael doesn't seem to know what to think. I climb about half way up and then call down and ask him if I'm hidden enough. He walks around the tree and tells me I'm alright.

The only thing I can do in this tree is wait. I don't move and don't say anything so Michael believes I'm sleeping. I can't sleep. He's worried something is going to happen tonight and I plan on going down to save him.

After a few hours I'm startled by a movement that isn't Michael. It's the girl from District 2 who was the angriest at us for not joining them in the beginning. I look for Michael. I want to shout at him and tell him, but I'm trying to hope she doesn't see him. I know she does when he turns his back to her and goes to open our backpack, I snap off the biggest branch close to me and throw it at him. I've been throwing spears all my life so I hit him hard in the head.

"Ow Annie, what's that for?" He looks up at me. I point at the girl. Too late.

"Aren't you a cutie?" she comes out and asks him. He's shocked he didn't notice her before. All Michael has is his dagger. This girl is armed with an axe. I have my spear up here in the tree with me, I could throw it at her. I might throw it at her.

"You have an adorable baby face, mind if I keep it? I'd hate to bloody it up." She smiles sadistically and raises her axe.

"Michael!" I scream, I can't find my spear. I know it's up here. I know I had it. I frantically start looking for it or even a tree branch I can do damage with.

"Oh, your girlfriend's around here watching. Don't worry, she's next," Michael takes a few steps backwards.

"Annie! Stay where you are! Don't hel –" I look down and see the axe connect with his neck. It rolls off his body. A canon instantly sounds.

"Alright 4. You refused to join us early on. I'd have killed you sooner than this of course, but it's alright. I'm going to kill you now. Come out and play!" she laughs. Finally I find my spear and when she looks up and makes eye contact with me, I throw it. It's implanted in her heart in less than a second. I make a jump for it. I'm going to kill her instead. I yank my spear from her heart. She falls backward and drops her axe. When she reaches for it, she finds my spear is pinning her hand to the ground. I pick up her axe and just like Michael, her head finds that it's not attached to her body either.

When the canon goes off for her, I bend down next to Michael's body. I didn't want him to die. I should have argued harder. I shouldn't have let him take watch tonight. This should not have happened to him. I don't realize that I'm still holding the axe. When I do, I stand up, scream, and throw it into a thick tree. The entire thing shakes and unless someone has tremendous strength, it's not going to come out of that tree any time soon. I don't realize I've been sobbing until the rain matches my tears. There are five other tributes plus me left. My mind stops. Nothing else matters. I have to get away from here, so I start walking. I don't know where I'm going. Not here.

When I finally pass out under a tree, I still can't sleep because I can't get the image of Michael's decapitation out of my head. I wake up and find myself screaming for Michael. Screaming for him to run while I'm searching for my spear. I think about my spear and how Finnick and I used to have competitions to see who could catch the most fish with one throw. But then I think back to the decapitation of Michael and the girl from District 2.

The rain has left about three feet of water on the ground and it isn't going to let up anytime soon. I'm sitting in a puddle of rain water and tears. My mind doesn't think about anything when I'm awake. Nothing matters. I'm vaguely aware when another tribute passes by me. I shrink and blend into the logs so I'm not killed. For now, I can stand, and the water doesn't come above my head. Soon I'm going to have to start swimming.

When the water gets to five feet and I've got to start swimming, I circle a tree. When I need to rest I grab the tree and climb to the first branch. I prefer to be in the water as much as possible. The water is my life now. My mind doesn't know anything else. I'm nothing but an empty person. There isn't anything going on inside my head except images of Michael and the District 2 girl. Occasionally I see images of Finnick. The canon sounds. I look around, I don't know or care who died. I just know it wasn't me. I dive back into the water. I remind myself I know how to float so the next time I get tired, I close my eyes and spread my arms out wide. The rain hits me in the face, but I don't care. Nothing matters. At this point I wouldn't care if I died.

The water reaches seven feet. Another canon sounds. I don't care. I'm still floating. It's all I know. When I get tired of floating I go back to swimming. Floating is much more peaceful.

The water continues to rise under me and when a branch hits me in the face I flinch and think I'm going to drown before my natural instincts kick in and I'm swimming. I climb onto the branch. The water is fifteen or more feet deep. I hear another canon. I lost count of how many others are left. I don't know how much time passed before I hear two more following each other. I still don't know how many others are left. I don't care. I just want to die.

I don't know how much time has passed simply because I don't care. I hear something. Something falls from the sky. It's a package. I sit still and watch it. I contemplate if I want it or not. I don't want to go get it. I don't want to move. I want to die. The water lifts me off the branch I was sitting on. I don't want to swim anymore. I don't want to float anymore. The package is still several branches above me. I finally decide I want it. I climb up to it and position myself where I won't fall when I open it. I don't know what it could be. On the top there are three sugar cubes. This whole package smells like and reminds me of Finnick.

Finnick. He's still fighting for me. I close the box of food. I haven't eaten in days. I position myself against the tree better and bring the box and my knees to my chest. Once again the rain matches my tears. My whole body shakes. I don't know what it was that scared me, but I can't help but to scream and flinch. I drop the box into the water. The wind is blowing really hard. The top of the tree that barely holds any weight begins to wave. It takes everything I have left to hold onto this tree. I haven't been swaying long before another canon goes off and suddenly the wind stops and the rain stops. There's not a chance I'm letting go of this tree. I squeeze my eyes shut. All is still and silent. A voice scares me into opening my eyes.

"Ladies and gentleman, I present you the victor of the 70th Hunger Games! Annie Cresta!" I won? No, there has to be at least one other person left. Someone has to come kill me. There's a big machine that comes toward me. I'm not letting go of the tree. I put my face against the tree so I don't have to move my hands to cover my ears. It's going to have to kill me while I'm hanging on. A ladder extends down to me. Someone is in the machine. The man calls down to me.

"It's okay Annie, it's over. Grab the ladder and we'll get you out of here. We'll take you back to your stylist and your mentors. You're going to get to go home." He says. I look at the ladder wearily and then slowly move one hand from my ear and reach out to touch it. When my hand wraps around one of the rungs, my whole body is frozen to it. I can't move and I can't hold onto the tree if I tried. I'm lifted up into the machine. I'm vaguely aware of them removing my tracker. If I thought my mind was empty before, I know it's empty now. A pair of arms find me when I'm out of the hovercraft. I don't know who it is and I don't care who it is.

"Annie," the voice asks. A man's face is suddenly in front of mine. "Annie, do you know who I am?" he asks concerned. For a moment, I don't answer him. I don't know who he is. I don't care who he is, but then I see the blue eye lashes. The green and orange spiked hair.

"Carter?" It's definitely Carter. When I say that he hugs me again. Guess he's glad that I know who he is. I don't know what's happened to me.

"We're going to go to the remake center. They're going to fix your scratches and bruises." He says. I got scratched? I have bruises? I don't remember getting them. I don't know where they are on my body. "They're going to get you a warm blanket. You're shivering." I am? I don't know that I am. I guess the capitol doesn't want me to die yet. I am their victor after all. I'm lead into the remake center. Someone puts a warm blanket around my shoulders. I realize I was shivering. I don't want them to take the blanket from me. They only let me keep it until they say my color has come back. They take the blanket and put me up on a table where they attend to all my scratches. Apparently I had more than I thought I did. They're all over my body.

When they're done, I'm grateful for warm clothes and another warm blanket. Carter takes my hand and slowly we walk to the lobby.

"I'm going to leave you with Finnick and Mags now," he says letting go of my hand. There's a guy and an older woman standing in the middle of the lobby. I know Finnick. I know that's him. He looks at me and we make eye contact. The way he's looking at me makes me nervous. I see sorrow flash across his face. He says something to Mags and walks away. I follow him with my eyes. I watch him leave and walk across the street.

"Annie?" I hear Mags say. She slowly approaches me. "We'll catch up to him. He didn't want to be here right now."

"Why not?" I ask.

"I don't know. Do you want to go now?" she asks. I nod my head. Why did Finnick leave? That is the only thing my mind wants to know. She extends her hand to me and we leave and go to the building where she and Finnick have been staying.


	7. Finnick's POV 4

Finnick's POV

When we get down to the lobby of the remake center, Heidi and Asher greet us.

"Carter wanted us to tell you," Heidi begins,

"There's something wrong with Annie." Asher finishes.

"What do you mean there's something wrong with her?" I ask. Something that they can't fix? Is that possible?

"She didn't know who we were," Heidi looks at Asher

"She almost didn't know who Carter was," Asher finishes.

"He wanted us to tell you that he thinks that Michael's death has affected her mental stability. The Capitol can't fix that. She may never recover," Asher says. Asher, Heidi, and Carter know that Annie is my entire world.

"They'll be down here soon," Heidi says sadly. Soon. I'd get to see my Annie.

"Thank you," I say. I sit down on one of the couches and wait for Annie and Carter to come out.

When they do, they're walking slowly, and Carter keeps glancing at her like she's going to break. I stand up beside Mags. I want her to come into my arms. I don't care who's watching or where we are. It doesn't matter. She stops.

"I'm going to leave you with Finnick and Mags now," he tells her and let's go of her hand. She sees Mags and me. I watch her carefully. That is not my Annie. I keep watching. I'm waiting to hear my name, or to step toward me. She makes eye contact with me. Those bright green eyes I loved so much, they're cloudy. The light has gone out of them.

"Mags, I'm going to my room," I say to her. I walk away. I can't do this. I want to go directly to Snow and find something to slit his throat with. They did this to her. She will never be my Annie again.  
I find myself in my room. I might still be able to recover her. She might still come back to me. I won't kill Snow yet. I'm lying face down in my bed when Mags comes in my room.

"Finnick, Annie needs you. You leaving her at the remake center like you did has really upset her." I pick my face up off the pillow. "She knows who you are. I'm not sure she knows who I am, but she knows you." Of course Annie would know me. She's still my Annie. I get up and nod my head. Annie is sitting on the couch.

"Annie," I say. She looks up with tears in her eyes. I cross the final distance to her and hold out my hand. She looks at it for a moment before taking it and standing up. I'm trying to be slow and careful. She's broken. I don't want to hurt her, but all I want is to hug her and kiss her and make everything be okay. After taking her hand and resisting the urge to pull her into my arms, we stand there in silence looking at one another. Tears escape her eyes, and slowly I reach up and wipe them off her face.

"It's going to be okay now Annie. I'm here, you're safe," I do pull her into my arms.

"It was awful Finnick," she says. It's the first thing she's said to me. The sound of her voice, so distant, so broken, brings tears to my eyes.

"You're okay now. I'm not going to let them hurt you anymore," Nothing is going to come between us.

The same woman from before storms in the room. I've buried my face in Annie's hair so I don't see her come in. I hear the heels clack against the floor, and think that it's only Kelly.

"You told me she didn't mean anything to you," the woman says. I look up and Annie looks at her too.

"I told you that I would give both arms, legs, and my life for her. I never said she didn't mean anything to me," I turn Annie's head back into my neck so I can protect her. She doesn't need this.

"How does she feel about your relationship with others here in the Capitol?" My neck starts to get wet, but I hold Annie closer.

"It doesn't matter. She knows how I feel. Why are you doing this? Don't you have other better things to be doing?" I ask. Where's Mags? I need this woman to go away.

"Yeah, you," the woman replies with a devious smile on her face. Damn. I don't think I can get away with saying no.

"I'm not on duty until after the Victory Tour." I try, "Tributes are more important than being Snow's sex slave," I spit at her.

She looks at me as though I've just told her that I've just killed all her family she's next on my hit list. She gets angry and stomps out of the room. After a moment, I put my face down to Annie's ear.

"I'm not going to let them hurt you. You're okay, you're safe," I say. Her body shakes with sobs against mine. "I'm not going to let you go,"

Mags walks in the door that the Capitol woman has just left.

"What did you do?" she asks. I didn't even know Mags had left the building.

"I told her that I'm not on duty until after the Victory Tour," I respond.

"Are you stupid? You might have just cost yourself your life and Annie's!" Mags yells. "Why would you do that?"

"I'm not stupid. You know that. I'm not about to let her walk in here and walk all over me when I have other things to worry about," Mags doesn't have another argument. Annie balls her fists up against my back and starts to whimper. I lift her up enough and put my feet under hers so I can walk the distance to the couch and pull her into my lap.

"You had better hope that she doesn't go and try to have you both executed," Mags says. "Kelly should be here soon." With that, she leaves the room again. Annie is shaking in my arms.

"What's wrong Annie?" I ask. I think I might understand why she's still crying. The things that happen in an arena are enough to affect the rest of your life in a negative way. She looks like she's trying not to scream. "What can I do to help?" I ask gently rubbing her back as I hold her against me. I want her to stop crying. I want her to be happy. It's really unnerving that she hasn't said more than four words to me in the last half hour since she got out of the remake center. I wouldn't doubt if it's the only four words she's said since she was in the arena. She doesn't say anything. I don't say anything more and I just let her cry. It breaks my heart to not be able to help her.

It's been twenty minutes and Annie's cried herself to sleep. Kelly walks in rather loudly.

"Where's our new Victor!" she yells. I loudly shush her.

"Asleep. Please don't wake her," I beg.

"Why is she asleep?" Kelly asks. Her voice carries. She's going to wake Annie. I don't know that I can handle the tears any more.

"We don't quite know what happened, but the doctors told me that she's going to suffer from psychological problems. She snapped when Michael died. Watching someone you care about is enough to make anyone insane." Mags says quietly coming into the room.

"Is she going to be okay enough to make the Victory Tour?" Kelly asks. Naturally that's the only thing she cares about right now. The Victory Tour means that this is finally over, and we can go home and go back to a decently normal life.

"Not today no, maybe tomorrow," Mags says. She looks at me. "I'm sorry Finnick," I look down at my Annie. She will never be the same again. I look up.

"She's not done fighting and neither am I," I say.

"You can't do anything for her,"

"Yes I can. I'm going to find something. Somehow, someway. You know what it's like. I know what it's like. I'm going to help her get through this." Neither Mags nor Kelly challenge this.

"So, should I come back tomorrow then?" Kelly asks looking between Mags and me.

"That would be a good idea," Annie stirs in my arms and my eyes immediately look down at her. No one breathes. She doesn't wake up. I reposition her so that I can pick her up.

"I'm going to put her in her bed," she whimpers when I set her down, but doesn't wake up even after I've tucked the covers around her.

"I love you Annie. You came back to me physically, I'm sure you'll come back to me mentally too," I kiss her cheek and then leave the room shutting the door behind me.

~HG~HG~HG~

It's early in the morning and I'm outside because I can't sleep. I hear screaming coming from inside and almost fall off the roof trying to scramble in. When I get to the source of the screaming, Mags is already in Annie's room trying to restrain her.

"Annie!" I say, Mags immediately jumps up and moves out of my way. Annie's flailing her arms and legs around and I'm right in the path of her hand. She has a strong punch, I find my bottom teeth have gone through my lip but I don't care right now.

"Annie, Annie, stop, you're okay, it's me. You're safe," I say once I've pinned her arms down. She isn't in a position to kick me. She stops when she looks into my eyes. "It was just a nightmare, you're okay,"

"Finnick?" she asks. I nod my head. "I'm here, I'm real, you're safe," she tries to sit up. I don't let go of her arms, but I help her sit up. She isn't crying. I take that as a good sign.

"I won?" she asks. I want to cry for her.

"You did, you made it back to me, I told you I wasn't going to let this be the first promise I broke." I tell her. She suddenly looks disturbed. Her eyes turn distant. I pull myself closer to her and whisper in her ear.

"Come back to me. Don't think about it. It's over." She breaks her arms away from me and covers her ears. She smacks me in the face again and pushes me away as she pulls her knees up to her chest and closes her eyes. I wrap my arms around her.

"I'm going back to bed," Mags announces. When she's left the room and been gone for five minutes, I break the silence. Annie hasn't moved except to rock back and forth.

"Lie down, try to sleep again," I kiss her head and move to get up. I don't get far before her hand is wrapped around my arm, pulling me back.

"Don't leave me," she says looking up at me. I can't resist.

"Okay, one second," I tell her. I get up and I close the door. I move the covers back and make her lie down before I crawl under them next to her. She cuddles close to me.

"I'm not going to let them hurt you," I tell her.

"I know,"

"I love you Annie," she tightens her arms around me but doesn't say it back. I guess that's enough for now.

* * *

**Authors Note: **The next part is done a little differently. It's still going to be Annie's POV, but I switched the way that i was doing them. If thats confusing... sorry... you'll see what i mean.


	8. Annie's POV 4

Annie's POV

Waking up next to Finnick was more than I could imagine. I was aware of where I was. I won the 70th Hunger Games. Finnick keeps telling me that I'm safe now, that he's not going to let them hurt me anymore. I remember yesterday that a capitol woman had come in and tried to take him away from me. He didn't go. I'm more than glad that he didn't go because I need him. I need him to help me get through this. I woke up in the middle of the night screaming from the nightmares. He told me we all have them. The Games change us in ways that we'll never recover from.

I'm still the same Annie I was before I went in. I still function normally, I still think normally. My brain is haunted with the images of the games, and I hear the voice that got me out of the arena telling me that I should have died. My brain doesn't let me function like a normal person on the outside. On the inside, I'm still Annie.

They're treating me like I'm unstable, like I'm going to scream or hurt someone. They're cautious to touch me, to talk to me. They don't always tell me what's going on.

"It's for your protection Annie," Finnick says when I manage to tell him not to treat me like I'm going to break. Even he isn't the same. He stays close to me though. I don't mind that.

The Victory Tour is just as bad as the Games. We save District 4 for last. Thankfully. I had a mental break down when we were in 2. I don't want to know what's going to happen when we get to 4.

In District 2, I had to face the family of the girl who killed Michael. The girl I had to kill to save my own life. I tried to say something nice to them, for them, that I was sorry I had to kill their daughter, but the words didn't come. Tears did. The girl looked just like her mother, which didn't make this any easier.

I ended up having to walk back inside the justice building without saying anything. I wanted Finnick to follow me, but I knew he probably wouldn't because he had to put some distance between us while we were in public. I went into one of the rooms and found a pillow to scream and cry into. Finnick found me ten minutes later.

"It's okay Annie," he began rubbing my back and he sat with me while I kept crying. I was getting tired of hearing that all the time. After a while I finally quit crying and pulled myself into his lap where I closed my eyes and enjoyed his arms around me.

Here in District 4 things are going to be different. We get to the District and I see the water, the beaches, and everything I love about 4. My heart aches, but my eyes can't cry anymore. Finnick takes my hand in his. This is home. We don't have to worry here. I just have to stand up in front of this District and present myself.

"You'll be okay, you can do this," Finnick says once we're in the justice building.

"Please stop saying that. You know good and well that things are never going to be okay. It's what they'll do now that we have to worry about. The nightmares are never going to go away. Nothing is going to be the same," I tell him.

"I'm trying to help you Annie. I'm trying to be here for you. If I could take your pain and nightmares away believe me I would. I love you." He's standing in front of me with his hands on my shoulders. That's the second time that he's said that since I won. The first time I didn't say anything back. I open my mouth to tell him that I love him too, but his lips are on mine before I can say anything. I remember the night we spent together on the roof back in the capitol. I remember how much I like this. It's just me, and Finnick, and nothing else matters. I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him back. I remember how I love how he tastes every bit as sweet as his sugar cubes that he still eats all the time. His arms are around my waist and he pulls me closer to him. As long as I have him, things will be okay. When he pulls back he rests his head against mine. His sea foam green eyes stare into my green ones and he smiles.

"That's my Annie," he whispers.

"I'll always be yours. I love you too," I say.

"I'll always be yours too. No matter what you might hear, what people might say to you, what you see. My heart belongs to you, don't forget that. Let's go show District 4 that you're home. You'll be able to see your parents when this is over. You'll all be able to move into the Victors Village. We won't have to sneak out and go far to see each other in the middle of the night." He smiles more at that thought. I smile too.

"You're my best friend in the whole world, you know that right?" I ask. He laughs.

"You're my best friend too Annie. That and so much more." I move so I can rest my head on his shoulder and hug him.

"Will they be watching us while we're up there?" I ask. He knows who I mean.

"Probably, but the peacekeepers here in our own District will leave us alone. They've never once bothered Mags or me. As long as we don't break any rules they'll leave us alone," he says. "Why? What are you thinking?"

"I was going to ask if you'd hold my hand while we're up there. Stand beside me. I just don't want you to get into trouble," I tell him. He pulls back so he can look at my face again.

"If they'll let me, I will," he interlocks his fingers with mine.

Mags had stayed outside to wait for them to tell us that they're ready for me, and to give Finnick and me some time alone. She now enters the room we're staying in.

"They're ready for you," she says. Finnick looks at me one last time and squeezes my hand.

"I'm not letting go," he tells me. We walk out onto the stage where the entire District is waiting to see me. Right up front are my parents. My mom has tears in her eyes. Beside them are Michael's parents. Seeing them breaks my heart and I squeeze Finnick's hand. I don't want to break down like I did in District 2. I have to stay strong. Kelly announces me and the entire District cheers. It's been five years since District 4 had a victor and that victor is standing beside me holding my hand and not letting go.

"Do you have anything you'd like to say Annie?" Kelly asks. She's asked me this twelve times now. In ten of the eleven districts I said that I was sorry for their loss. I don't know what I want to say here though. I hesitantly take the microphone from Kelly.

"I want to say that Michael was probably the bravest twelve year old I know, I wish I could have saved him. I began to feel like he was my little brother," I felt tears spring to my eyes. "I'm so sorry." Finnick's hand in mine kept me from going deep into my mind. I give the microphone back to Kelly. I'm not going to be able to say anything else. The District claps and cheers for me.

I close my eyes but it doesn't help. It makes things worse. I see Michael's head fall from his body. I see and feel the arena around me. I hear that voice again and my hands go up toward my ears. My right hand fights me. Only a few moments later I'm in the tree again. In the air; only water and a tree branch around me. The machine that lifted me out of the arena is around me. I've been hearing screams that scare me and I'm crying.

"Annie, I'm here. You're okay. Stop screaming. Nothing is going to hurt you." Finnick's voice breaks through to my mind. "I'm here Annie. You're not in the arena anymore. It's over." I realize that the screams that scare me are my own. I can't stop them but I want them to stop. I hear other people surround me and their voices mix with Finnick's.

"Let us sedate her," I hear a voice break through. I also hear Finnick tell them no. I want so badly to stop screaming and find Finnick. All I have is his voice. He was beside me just a few moments ago and then the arena consumed me and he was lost. The thought that he might be in the arena with me is something else that scares me. I can't save him and he can't save me.

Eventually the screams stop and the visions of the arena stop too. I wake up to bright lights in my face and in an unfamiliar bed.

"Annie?" Finnick sounds like he hasn't slept in a week.

"Finnick?" I ask. I reach my arms out to the voice I heard and his hand takes mine out of the air.

"I'm here, I'm here. I tried to tell them to leave you alone, that you'd be okay with me, but then the capitol called. They wanted me back so I didn't have a choice, I'm so sorry Annie," he says. I hear the tears in his eyes.

"Don't cry," I say. I turn my head to look at him. "Can you turn the lights out?" I ask. They're very bright and blinding. He squeezes my hand tightly before he lets go and crosses the room to turn the lights out. When he turns them out I'm able to move over and I pat the bed beside me. He climbs up and pulls me into his arms. He's crying anyways.

"Don't cry Finnick, please?" I ask. I snuggle into him. I have no intentions of letting him get up.

"I'm going to protect you the best that I can," he says through his broken tears. It's the last thing he says before he eventually cries himself to sleep. I can't bring myself to sleep, I've been doing that for a while apparently. I kiss his cheek and take the edge of my sheet and wipe his face. He's beautiful when he's awake, but I think he's even more beautiful when he's asleep.

I don't know how much time has passed when the doctors come back in to check on me.

"Oh, you're awake! Finnick was supposed to come tell us when you woke up," the female said. I sit up so she can talk to me.

"My name's nurse Michelle, I've been assigned to take care of you while you're here," she says. "Is he asleep?" she asks as though she's just noticed Finnick's in my bed beside me. I nod my head. I hope she isn't planning on waking him up.

"Where am I? Why am I here?" I ask. "Where are my parents?" I only got to see them for the amount of time when I was on the stage at the end of the Victory Tour. "What happened?" Michelle chuckles at my questions. I don't find them funny.

"I don't know if anyone has told you, but something inside your head changed during the Games. You're suffering from psychological problems that cannot be cured. You had a mental break down while you presented yourself in front of District 4. Finnick tried to tell us that he thought you'd be okay with him, however, we're doctors and he's not. So you're in the hospital here in District 4. We decided that it was best that Finnick and Mags be the ones to visit you until you woke up, so your parents will be notified and you'll be allowed to see them soon." She smiles at me. "How do you feel?"

"I feel fine," I respond. Finnick stirs beside me.

"He's such a sweetheart isn't he?" she asks. I smile.

"He's my best friend," I tell her. She chuckles again.

"Looks like it's more than that," I shake my head. Of course it is more than that, however she doesn't need to know that.

"Alright, I'm going to go notify your parents that you're awake," she says and then she leaves the room. I look at Finnick again. He's still sleeping. I lie down beside him again and nestle my head between his neck and his head and close my eyes. I have a feeling that my parents are going to wake him up. It's been almost two months since they've seen me. I hear the door open slowly and I sit up again.

"Annie!" my mom whispers. There are tears in her eyes.

"Mom," I smile and hold my hand out to her. She comes around to my side of the bed, throws her arms around me and sobs.

"I love you Annie," she says. I hug her back and hold her.

"I love you too mom. I've missed you so much," My father is still standing in the doorway. I look over to him. "I love you too daddy," I say. He smiles and tears come to his eyes. I really hope he doesn't decide to cry because I think I might cry if he does. When my mom finally decides to let me go, he comes over and takes me in his arms. It's not like Finnick's arms, but these arms are another place close to home.

"They said that you can go home with us in a day or two. We've moved into the Victors' house already, you're going to love it there. Mags helped us move in and whenever we could get him away from you, Finnick helped too," my mom says. "I think that boy's fallen in love with you," I laugh.

"I know he has," I look at Finnick and smile. He's still sleeping. "Has he slept at all recently?" I ask.

"The Capitol called him away not long after he took you inside the justice building. He wasn't going to let you come here. He got back a few days later and has been up here with you since,"

"No, I don't think he has," my dad said. Dad was always the simpler one. They know that Finnick's my best friend and they know him just as well as I do.

"How long have I been here?" I ask them. Dad checks his watch.  
"About a week, a very long nerve wracking week. They sedated you every time you woke up screaming." I look down at Finnick. I must have put him through hell with this last week. I touch his cheek. Michelle comes back in now.

"We're just going to do some checkups on you and then we'll let you alone," she says. "You'll be able to go home either tomorrow or the next day depending on how you do between now and then," she smiles at my parents. For some reason or another, I don't really like this woman. I can't quite place my finger on why it is that I don't like her, I just don't.

~HG~HG~HG~

When I'm released from the hospital two days later, my parents are very excited to show me our new house. I'm excited to see it. When I get here, I look at the house they're standing in front of. It's on the other side of Finnick's house.

"We'll be neighbors now," he comes up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist. I lean back into him.

"I'm gonna miss sneaking out and meeting up in the woods though," I tell him with a smile.

"We can still sneak out and go there if you'd like. We'll just have to be careful getting out and then back in," he says. Of course. "I left you something in your room. I'm going to go home and let you spend some time with your parents now," I turn around in his arms and throw my arms around his neck and hug him.

"Come by for dinner?" I ask.

"We'll see," he kisses me and then detaches my arms from his neck. "Go on inside," he laughs at me. I pout, but go inside anyways.

My mom spends twenty minutes showing me the house. It's a two story house and there are four bedrooms upstairs. It's got several bathrooms, a nice kitchen, a dining room, a living room and a big, empty, finished basement. Our old house had two bedrooms, one small bathroom, and a kitchen that turned into a living room. It was only one story and about half as small as this house. My parents are not used to this luxury. I've seen it before with Finnick's house, but they haven't.

"This is our room, and the one across from it is yours," my mom tells me. It's the furthest two rooms from the stairs. "We figured you would want the one across from ours instead of the one beside ours." My old room was across from theirs. It makes it more what I'm used to.

"I set it up the way it was before, but it's a bigger room so it's a little different. Finnick also added his own touch to the room as well." I hug my mom.

"Thank you," I tell her.

"You're welcome sweetie. I'm so happy you're home," she says with tears in her eyes. When she lets me go I slowly open the door to my new room.

She's right. It is bigger. There's a ceiling fan as well. It's set up almost the exact same way as before. They even painted it so that it looks the same colors as before. There's a small package on the center of my bed. I smile when I recognize Finnick's wrapping. He never was able to wrap anything decently. I pick it up and continue to look around. I look out the window. It's a window facing Finnick's house. Finnick's room is on the other side of his house though. I'm not sure what's on this side.

When I'm done looking around I sit down on my bed and open the package. It contains a handful of sugar cubes, a note, and a crown of flowers. I laugh and then put the flowers in my hair. I put the sugar cubes in the top drawer of my dresser. I'll save them for another time. I open the note. There's a picture of us from when we were kids, and then a picture of us from just before my Hunger Games. We've changed so much.

_Dear Annie,_

_I hate this. I hate what they are doing to me ,and what they did to you. I know you don't like to hear it, but you're going to be okay because I'm not going to let them hurt you and I'm not going to let them use you the way they use me. I love you more than anything. Don't let anyone ever tell you differently. My heart belongs to you and you alone. I'm so sorry, but I have to go to the capitol for a week. The girl that I stood up just before the Victory Tour did get me in quite a bit of trouble. You're safe though. Mags is there and she's going to protect you too. There's something else hiding in your room that I know you'll love. It'll be your reminder that even though I'm not physically there with you, I'm still there. I named him James. Take care of him for me will you? _

_I'll be back soon. I love you,_

_Finnick_

By the end of the letter I'm crying. I hold the letter to my chest and cry. It's not until my mom comes in to get me for dinner that I get up from my bed.

"It's going to be okay," my mom tells me after she reads Finnick's note. There are tears in her eyes but she's smiling too. "What did he leave you aside from this?" she asks. I sniffle and she wipes my face. "Those are pretty, did he leave you those too?" she touches one of the flowers in my hair. I'm sure they're all tangled in there now. I nod my head and she gently untangles it from my hair and sets it on the table by my bed.

"This must be James," she says picking up a teddy bear that was hiding behind the lamp on the table. I extend my hands toward him and when I feel how soft he is and how he smells just like Finnick, fresh sobs wrack through my body as I hug the bear to myself. My mom looks scared. She isn't sure what to do, so she does the only thing she does know. She sits down on my bed beside me and pulls me into her arms while I cry.

"It's okay Annie, he'll be back. You're alright baby. I love you," she whispers. We sit there until I cry myself to sleep.


	9. Finnicks POV 5

Finnick's POV:

Annie doesn't realize how unstable she is. She doesn't like everyone hovering over her and watching her every move all the time. She would rather we all back off a little. I can't help it though. I need her as much as she needs me. I don't seem to bother her like everyone else does, but I do bother her.

"I'm not going to break Finnick, please stop treating me like that," she tells me.

"It's for your protection Annie," I tell her.

We get to District 4 and she tenses. District 4. Home. I take her hand.

"You'll be okay, you can do this," I tell her as we get off the train and head inside the Justice Building.

"Please stop saying that. You know good and well that things are never going to be okay. It's what they'll do now that we have to worry about. The nightmares are never going to go away. Nothing is going to be the same," she says.

"I'm trying to help you Annie. I'm trying to be here for you. If I could take your pain and nightmares away, believe me I would. I love you." I've moved in front of her and put my hands on her shoulders. I think she's about to tell me she loves me too, but I don't give her a chance before my lips find hers. After she gets over the initial shock of the unexpected, she melts into the kiss. It's just me and her. One day that's all it will be. One day, I will escape the Capitol women and Annie and I can run away together.

When I pull back, I rest my forehead against hers and our eyes lock. I smile.

"That's my Annie," I whisper. Those green eyes that sparkle, that are bright, and not cloudy or hazy. She's still in there. The Annie she was before.

"I'll always be yours. I love you too," she tells me.

"I'll always be yours too. No matter what you might hear, what people might say to you, what you see. My heart belongs to you, don't forget that. Let's go show District 4 that you're home. You'll be able to see your parents when this is over. You'll all be able to move into the Victors Village. We won't have to sneak out and go far to see each other in the middle of the night." I smile more at that, and it brings a smile to her face too.

"You're my best friend in the whole world, you know that right?" she asks. I laugh. Of course I know that, why would she ask such a question?

"You're my best friend too Annie. That and so much more." She moves and rests her head on my shoulder and hugs me. I would stand here and hold her all day long if it was up to me.

"Will they be watching while we're up there?" she asks. She means the Peacekeepers and the Capitol.

"Probably, but the Peacekeepers here in our own District will leave us alone. They've never once bothered Mags or me. As long as we don't break any rules, they'll leave us alone." It usually Capitol Peacekeepers who bother me. "Why? What are you thinking?" I ask.

"I was going to ask if you'd hold my hand while we're up there. Stand beside me. I just don't want you to get into trouble," she says. I get myself into trouble, I don't need her help. I pull her back so I can look at her face.

"If they'll let me, I will," I take both her hands in mine and lock our fingers together. Mags enters the room in the Justice Building Annie and I have been standing in.

"They're ready for you," she says. I look at Annie one more time and squeeze the hand that I don't drop.

"I'm not letting go," I tell her. We walk out on stage and the entire District is waiting for us. Annie sees her parents and Michael's parents. She squeezes my hand to keep a grip on reality. We listen to Kelly welcome home another District 4 Victor.

"Do you have anything you'd like to say Annie?" Kelly asks. She hesitates before she takes the microphone.

"I want to say that Michael was probably the bravest twelve year old I know, I wish I could have saved him. I began to feel like he was my little brother. I'm so sorry." She gives the microphone back to Kelly. The District claps and cheers for her, but she's trying not to cry. I watch the camera's and see her close her eyes. Moments later she tries to cover her ears again. The hand I'm holding in mine tries to pull up too, but I'm not letting it. She can't break down, not in front of the entire District. Mags comes up on Annie's other side and nods at me. Together we get her inside the Justice Building just before she starts screaming. These are blood curdling screams unlike any she's ever screamed before. This scares me, and breaks my heart that I can't help her.

"Annie, I'm here. You're okay. Stop screaming. Nothing is going to hurt you," I wrap my arms around her and her other hand makes its way up to her other ear. "I'm here Annie. You're not in the arena anymore. It's over," Doctors and Peacekeepers rush into the room. They begin to scream and yell at me.

"Let us sedate her," one of them says.

"No, she'll be okay. She'll stop screaming soon. She doesn't need it," I try to argue. They only argue back.

I'm trying to keep them from taking Annie to the hospital after she breaks down at the end of her Victory Tour here in District 4. A Peacekeeper comes in and gives me a letter from President Snow. They want me in the Capitol now that the Victory Tour is over. I'm in trouble. Unwillingly I watch them take Annie from me. The same Peacekeeper comes up and drags me off toward the trains. There's no way I would have gone willingly.

I blankly watch the scenery pass me by on the train from 4 to the Capitol. I don't want to do this. I don't want anyone else to touch me. To use me. Life is never fair.

When I get off the train in the Capitol, I'm greeted by the woman I turned down. She has a very malicious look on her face. Whatever she does to me is probably going to include violence. I'll probably return to Annie with scars in odd places. I'm not looking forward to this.

"Hello Finny dear," she says coming up to me. She scrapes a jagged finger nail across my cheek. "How's your little girlfriend recovering from her Victory Tour?" she asks. I hear the malice dripping from her voice. I cringe.

"Annie's fine thank you." I tell her.

"That didn't sound very convincing. That's not what it looked like before you left here, that's now what it looked like in District 2, or District 4," her nail digs into my arm. I put on my fake smile.

"Why don't we go somewhere?" I ask. I don't need people passing by to watch or hear anything.

"Charming!" she says. "We'll have lots of fun," the look in her eyes says that she'll have fun. I don't think torture is on my list of fun.

~HG~HG~HG~

Two hours later, she leaves my Capitol room satisfied with the amount of torture she bestowed upon me for showing her up before. I groan as I get up and lock the door behind her. I feel disgusting, so I limp my way to the shower. The water stings the cuts that paint my body. I'm positive torture isn't an accurate word to describe what she did to me. I've been bitten and scratched, and the water turns a very disgusting red as it falls from me. I lean against the shower wall. I've been here for half a day and all I want is to go home to Annie. I'm worried about what they're doing to her. Or not doing to her.

I get out of the shower after the water starts to run clear again and wrap myself in a towel. I fall face first on the bed and after about a moment of lying there, I hear a knock on my door. I want so badly to ignore it. I hurt all over, and I can't deal with this emotionally. I force myself to get up and answer it. I put a smile on my face.

"Hello Finnick," Kelly is at the door. She pushes past me and walks right in. I'm so glad it's only Kelly. "You look like hell, what did she do to you?" Kelly sees my naked upper half.

"What does it look like? There's more you can't see," I tell her. I fall on the bed again.

"Why did she do this?" Kelly asks.

"I showed her up just before the Victory Tour," I mumble. Kelly snickers. Capitol women.

"Do you have anything you can put on them?" she asks. "You look like she's used a whip to take half your skin off,"

"I feel like my skin is gone. I don't know if I have anything, I don't care. I just want to go home." I like Kelly. She knows that this is wrong, that this shouldn't be happening. I don't deserve this.

"I can't help you on that one, but I'm going to find something to help. Give me your key so I can get back in," I point to the side of the bed where my pants are lying on the floor.

"Front right pocket,"

"I'm coming back to spend the night," she says loudly after she opens the door. I'm so grateful for her.

~HG~HG~HG~

After a week of several other women, I'm finally allowed to go home. I feel so gross returning to Annie. Kelly came back later that day with cream that she applied. I know it was hard for her to do that for me, but most of the scars are healed and gone. Annie won't have to know anything. Hopefully she won't notice that I haven't slept since I left. I walk over to the hospital.

"Is Annie Cresta still here?" I ask.

"She's not allowed to have any visitors except her mentors Finnick Odair and Mags." the nurse doesn't even look up from her papers.

"I am Finnick Odair," I tell her. She looks up and sees my face.

"Oh! Mr. Odair! I'm so sorry! Right this way," she says jumping up from her seat. Even women here in District 4 fall at my feet. I hate it.

"Why are we the only ones allowed to visit her? Have her parents seen her yet?" I ask.

"We decided it would be best for her mental stability that way. Her parents will be allowed to see her once she wakes up. She's been out since they sedated her. Occasionally she's woken up screaming, and we've had to sedate her again to make her stop. She's been out for a few days since the last time," the nurse says. "Will you do us a favor and if she wakes up not screaming, let us know?" she asks as she stops in front of a door. I nod my head. I'll let them know after she wakes up and I've had time to spend with her myself.

"Right through here then," she opens the door. It's a small room. There is a couch on one wall, two chairs on the other. The bed that contains a sleeping Annie extends out between them. The door closes behind me. I inch toward the bed and pull one of the chairs over where I can sit and lean over onto the bed. I take her hand in mine. It's cold.

I've been here for a few days now, and sleep tries to get the best of me. I lean back in the chair and close my eyes. Before it can finally take me over, there's movement on the bed. Annie's stirring. I'm waiting for the screams but they don't come.

"Annie?" I ask. My voice is rougher than I meant for it to be.

"Finnick?" she calls reaching for me. I take her hand. It's still cold.

"I'm here, I'm here. I tried to tell them to leave you alone, that you'd be okay with me, but then the Capitol called. They wanted me back. I didn't have a choice, I'm so sorry Annie," I finally break down into the tears I've been trying not to let go of.

"Don't cry," she says. "Can you turn the lights out?" I guess they would be bright in her face. I squeeze her hand before I get up and turn them out. When they're out, she moves over and pats the bed indicating she wants me to come up beside her. I do so and I pull her into my arms. I have no choice but to let the tears and the sobs over take me.

"Don't cry Finnick, please?" she asks snuggling close to me.

"I'm going to protect you the best that I can," I tell her. She holds me while I cry myself to sleep.

~HG~HG~HG~

Annie is released two days later. She goes home with her parents and when they get to the Victors Village, I'm already there waiting. I go home a few hours before she does. It gives me enough time to hide a teddy bear in her room, find some flowers and tie them into a crown, and wrap up some sugar cubes. It also gives enough time for the Peacekeepers to find me and tell me the Capitol wants me back. I don't want them back. I just spent a week there! I tell them it will be a few hours before I'm ready to go. I sit down and write Annie a note to put in her room with the sugar cubes, flowers, and teddy bear.

When she gets to the Victors Village, I'm watching from my window. They pass and I go out behind them. She stops to look at the house that's now hers.

"We'll be neighbors now," I walk up behind her and wrap my arms around her waist. She leans into me.

"I'm gonna miss sneaking out and meeting up in the woods though," she tells me.

"We can still sneak out and go there if you'd like. We'll just have to be careful getting out and then back in. I've left you something in your room. I'm going to go home and let you spend some time with your parents now," she turns around in my arms and wraps hers around my neck to hug me.

"Come by for dinner?" she asks. I want so badly to tell her I will. I'm leaving District 4 as soon as I go gather my things for the next week.

"We'll see," is the answer I give her. I lean down and kiss her. I pull her arms out from around my neck. "Go on inside," I laugh at her cuteness as she pouts, and then she turns away from me. I watch her walk into the house before I go get my things and leave to the train station.

~HG~HG~HG~

A week has gone by and there has been nothing short of a line of women outside my door. I have to pretend that I like this, that I'm alright with it, or else they'll kill Annie. They'll take her away, and I don't know what I'll do without her.

"You have a girl back home don't you?" one of them asks one night. I have a few "regulars" who spend the night sometimes.

"What makes you think that?" I ask.

"There's something different about you. Something that tells me you want to go home. If it's not a girl, there's something else in your District that you want, or that you miss." Damn. I'm trying so hard not to let my thoughts and feelings for and of Annie radiate though.

"I just miss the ocean, the air, the smells, the sights," I tell her. "No girl." That of course is a lie. Annie is my whole world now. Annie, and Mags of course.

"Are you going home tomorrow?" she asks.

"Yeah, I am. I can't wait, it's been a very long week," at least the woman I stood up, and who viciously attacked me hasn't come by this week.

The next morning, I'm overly eager to board the train to head home. I can't wait to get there and to see Annie. When I get home however, I find myself stopped in the middle of Victors Square by Mags. She looks very somber.

"What's wrong Mags?" I ask, my thoughts immediately going to Annie.

"It's not Annie, Annie's fine," Mags says knowing that's what I thought. "It's your mother," my mother? "She's dead Finnick,"

My mother is dead? I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. I never really liked the woman, but at the same time she was still my mom.

"Finnick? Are you alright?" Mags asks waving a hand in front of my face. I snap back to reality.

"I'm fine, how did she die?"

"There was a fire at the docs. She was trying to save some of the children before the fire reached the oil tanks. There was one older gentleman who got trapped beneath a heavier tank and once the children were all clear, she went back and stayed with the man. She tried to get the tank off of him, but it was too heavy. She sat with him as the fire reached the tank. I'm sorry Finnick," there are tears in Mags' eyes. I pull the frail old woman in for a hug. She cared more about my mom than I did, but there are still tears in my own eyes. If there was one thing my mother loved more, it was children. She had compassion for people dying.

"It's okay," I tell her. It will be okay. Things will go back to the way they were before. Mother pretty much ignored me most of the time anyways. I never knew why she didn't like me, since she loved children as much as she did. I guess it was different since I was her son. I was more of a show off than anything. Maybe that's why she didn't like me.

Adjusting to the house being totally mine now is difficult at first. There are nights that I cry myself to sleep because while I never liked her, I do miss her.

When I first see Annie after returning home from the Capitol again, she looks distant. Like she's lost herself and doesn't care to find her. Her green eyes are cloudy. She's wearing a bright yellow dress and she's carrying a basket full of fish. The basket is one she wove together herself. I see her handiwork laced within it. I watch her from the front window as she goes into her house. I gather the bouquet of flowers that I'd picked for her earlier. They're some of her favorite colors. Bright blue, green, purple, and they're her favorite flower. The simple daisy's that litter the ground in District 4. I gather the small box of sugar cubes I picked up in the Capitol too. Of course, there's my bigger box in the cabinet in my room, but I know Annie likes them too so I bought her her own box.

I knock on their door, and then put the flowers and sugar behind my back. Her father answers the door.

"Ah, Fi-" I cut him off by putting a finger to my lips. "She's upstairs in her room. She's missed you." He tells me. I make my way up the stairs and knock on her closed bedroom door. I set the sugar and the flowers down so that I have both my arms to wrap around her.

"I'm fine mother, please," I hear her exasperated sigh from within. I smile as I open the door.

"She's worried about you, you know." I say. Annie was lying face up on her bed looking at the nothing above her until she heard my voice. She sits up and looks at me for a moment before a smile plays at her lips and she all but runs across the room to me. I pick her up and spin her around.

"Hi," I whisper in her ear.

"Hi," she says back.

"I brought you something,"

"Finnick, you didn't have to," she pulls back enough to look me in the eyes. Her eyes are still cloudy, but there's a glimmer behind the fog.

"I know I didn't have to. I wanted to." I tell her as I let her go. I reach around the corner and pick up the flowers and the box. I present her the flowers first. "I know these are your favorites," Her whole face has lit up. She puts them on her nightstand in the arms of the teddy bear I left her. I see her mother has framed the pictures I left and those too are on her nightstand by the teddy bear.

"I also picked you up your own box of these. You won't have to steal mine anymore," I smile. She laughs too as she takes the box and puts it in her dresser.

"I don't have to steal yours anymore anyways," she says shyly as she wraps her arms around me again.

"Why is that?" I ask playfully.

"I found something else that tastes like them," I watch a blush creep up her cheeks. I place the back of my hand against one of them. I think I know what she's talking about and the thought of it amuses me.

"Care to tell me what it is you've found? I've never been able to find anything that tastes quite as good," I'm teasing her now. She moves my hand from her cheek and then closes the distance between my lips and hers. Of course, I would taste like my sugar cubes. I smile against her lips.

"I love you," I whisper. She tightens her arms around my neck in response.


	10. Annie's POV 5

Annie's POV

Standing in the water looking at the docs brings me back to what happened just a few days ago. There was a fire here. I was out in the water working on my nets, testing them to see if they were big enough or strong enough to catch and keep fish. There were a lot of children out too. I'm not sure how the fire got started, but when it did, it kept going. The boats that were close to the shore, tied up to the burning docs, those caught fire too. But there were enough men who helped put the fires out the best they could. Boats were untied and thrown out to sea, women were picking up children and running them to safety. There was one face that stood out to me the most. When the oil towers fell into the burning mass of human and wood alike, an older gentleman was trapped beneath one. The older man cried out for mercy, for help, most people passed him. Of all the people who were there, Finnick's mother tried to lift the tank off of him. When she failed, she sat down, pulled him into her lap the best she could and wept with him. Together, they were crying and holding onto their last breaths when the fire blew up that tank.

There was a small funeral for those who died in the tragic accident. I didn't go. I wouldn't go without Finnick. He's still in the capitol. He doesn't know his mother's dead yet. I wonder how he'll react.

I catch some fish with these nets. I didn't with the last ones. I put them in one of my neatly woven baskets and carry them home with me. Maybe my father will cook them up for dinner tonight. I put the basket on the table and head directly to my room. My mother starts after me, but the knock on the front door is moment enough of a distraction. When I get to my room, my bed is the most welcoming place for me. The patterns on the celling begging my eyes to trace them. There's a soft knock on my door. Mother did decide to follow me. I sigh. She won't ever leave me alone. She's constantly worrying. I know she means well. It's not every parent who wakes up to a screaming seventeen year old daughter and there's nothing they can do but let her scream. I just want to be left alone right now.

"I'm fine mother, please," my eyes have not left the intricate patterns that hover above me.

"She's worried about you, you know," That is not my mother. It's not my father either. That is the sound of the voice I have missed. The voice of the boy, or man, I love. I sit up and look at him before joy overtakes my facial features and I dart across the room to him. He must be happy to see me too because he welcomes me and then spins me around.

"Hi," he whispers. His breath tickles my ear and my neck.

"Hi" I bury my face in his neck and cling to his embrace.

"I brought you something,"

"Finnick, you didn't have to," I pull back and find myself staring into his lovely sea foam green eyes.

"I know I didn't have to. I wanted to." He lets me go and walks to my doorway where he picks up something he must have set down before he knocked. He presents me with a bouquet of my favorite flowers. There are bright green and blue and purple daisies among the mix. There's still something behind his back, but for now I take the flowers and I set them in the arms of my teddy bear. Poor teddy bear. He's been through so much with me this last week. It's one of the few things that has gotten me through this week without Finnick.

"I also picked you up your own box of these. You won't have to steal mine anymore," he smiles and I laugh. I take the box and put them in my dresser where the three from before still are. I wonder how long sugar cubes can sit out before they go bad. If they even go bad. There's one more thing that would make this moment one of the best.

"I don't have to steal yours anymore anyways," I tell him as I wrap my arms around his waist. My eyes don't meet his.

"Why is that?" the tone in his voice says he's teasing me. I play along.

"I found something else that tastes like them," I blush. Flirting is one thing I have never been good at. He's the flirt not me. My cheeks go hot and he places the back of his hand against one of them begging my eyes to meet his.

"Care to tell me what it is you've found? I've never been able to find anything that tastes quite as good," He really infuriates me sometimes. He's so good at what he does and my heart melts without my permission. Of course, that's what I love about him too, only he can make me feel this way. I reach up and move his hand off my cheek and then lean forward and kiss him. He's been eating them recently. I can taste the fresh sugar on his lips. He smiles as he kisses me back. He knew what I was thinking before I'd even said anything.

"I love you," he says. I tighten my arms around his neck. There is no sweeter taste in the world, nothing else that can make me as happy as I am.

~HG~HG~HG~

Five Years Later

Finnick has been acting odd all week long. I haven't figured out why. Maybe it's because the reaping is coming up soon. He always is tense around reaping times. He hates leaving me and even more than that he hates mentoring. District 4 hasn't had a victor since me. I don't really care. The Capitol deemed me unfit to mentor anyways. They've left me alone since my Victory Tour. I could get away with murder here in the District if I wanted to. They'd see it as one of my episodes where I lose my mind and I don't know what I'm doing. But of course, that's just the image that they want me to be. I know what I'm doing. There are times that I block everything out, but most of the time Finnick's arms are around me, and his voice is reminding me that my Games, at least, are over.

Still, as the reaping day gets closer, he gets closer. It makes me wonder if he's expecting to go away and not return to me or something. I don't mind that he is where I am, but I'm really beginning to wonder about him come reaping morning when I leave my room to go to the bathroom and I step on him because he was sleeping in the hallway outside my room.

After scaring me to death, and then comforting me and holding me while I cried and explaining to my parents what he was doing in our house at five in the morning, I finally calmed down enough to ask him what his problem is.  
"Finnick Odair. I don't know what your problem is, but you're scaring me," I tell him once my parents have gone back to bed and I've dragged him into my room. We're sitting together on my window seat watching the sun rise over the ocean. It's one of the most beautiful things.

"I didn't mean to scare you Annie," he says as he rests his chin in the hollow of my neck and I lean back into him.

"No, not just this morning, I mean, your actions, they're scaring me. You're acting like we're never going to see each other again. Like the Capitol is going to take me away from you or they'll take you away from me. I don't mind being with you at all, but the closer the Games get the more you scare me." I admit. Suddenly my neck is wet. For a moment I think he's drooling on me or something but then when I sit up and pull away from him, he's crying. I reposition myself so that I'm sitting with my back to the window instead of against his chest.

"I'm sorry Annie," he chokes out.

"Finnick, Don't cry," I feel the tears coming to my own eyes. I hate watching him cry. He wraps his arms around me and pulls me to him.

"They are taking me away. They're going to separate us Annie. Or it'll be my luck they'll want to keep us together, but I won't let them hurt you. I won't let you go back into the arena. You would think that they'd give us a break. Let us be happy. We've been to hell and back to be together! But it's the Capitol. They want nothing more to ruin happiness." He says. Tears are streaming down both our faces and I'm sure we'll create a puddle in the floor.

"What do you mean they're taking you away? What are you talking about?" I manage to ask.

"The Quarter Quell is this year Annie," he sniffles and wipes at his eyes. "The 75th Hunger Games tributes are going to be reaped from the Victors of the other 74 games." He holds me close as this sinks in. He is the only male victor left for District 4. Mags and I are the only remaining female victors from District 4.

"No," I whisper. "No, No, No," before I know it, I'm screaming at him and banging my fists against his chest as he sits there and cries and lets me hit him. He doesn't even try to comfort me because he knows that no matter what he says, nothing is going to make me happy. My parents come rushing in the room again at my screams but he stops them from taking me away from him. Eventually my screams die down and I've cried until I want to throw up. It's only now when he holds me close again and rocks me.

"I will come home to you Annie. Don't you think otherwise. I will fight for you. I will do anything and everything to come home to you. I love you so much. I know you don't usually like to watch the games, but promise me you'll watch these? It will make me feel better to know that you're watching over me even if you can't help me," he asks. There isn't much that I wouldn't do for him.

"As long as you promise I'll be able to hold you again. Be able to touch you, hug you, kiss you, laugh with you again, I promise I will watch the games." I whisper through my tears.

"I promise Annie."

I'm unaware of the time, but my father is the one who comes and wakes Fin and me for the reaping. Somewhere along the way, we fell asleep in each other's arms. I walk with him to the door of my room which he swiftly closes and then turns around and presses his lips against mine before I even have time to think about what just happened. It isn't the gentle "I don't want to break you," kiss that he usually does. This kiss is so much more urgent than any of our kisses have been before. There is so much need and so much want and desire behind this kiss. He ends it much too soon and we stand there clinging to one another almost completely out of breath.

"I love you Annie Cresta. Whatever you do, don't _ever_ forget that," he says between breaths. "Don't leave without me. I'm going to shower and change. Wait for me on the porch if you're ready before I am."

"I love you too Finnick. I won't forget." He hugs me tightly one last time and then opens my door and leaves me alone to ready myself.

~HG~HG~HG~

I'm wearing the green dress that matches my eyes. A few years ago he helped me pick it out and I know he loves to see me wear it. It's a simple, just below the knees, spring time dress. He's wearing what he normally wears to reapings. Khaki shorts and a button up shirt that he refuses to button. He takes my hand in his and we walk to the justice building.

"We don't know what this year's Quell is alright?" he says. I look up at him and there's something in his eye that tells me that knowing this in advance is secret knowledge. I nod my head and he leads me around to the back where Mags is waiting on us. Even though I don't mentor, I still get to sit on the stage with the other Victors watching the reapings. I sit between Finnick and Mags. For the Capitol appearance, the only parts of our bodies that we allow to touch are our feet, but today, he slowly scoots his chair as close to mine as he can get it and he interlocks his fingers in mine. I've had enough practice looking indifferent, so I focus my face to that look. It doesn't last long though because when Kelly steps forward to draw the announcement for the Quarter Quell, Finnick squeezes my hand.

"It's okay," I whisper.

"No it's not," he responds back. Kelly steps up to the microphone and opens the envelope she's drawn.

"This year's Hunger Games tributes will be reaped from previous Hunger Games tributes," she reads glumly. "That means that our contestants will be two of these three lovely Victors behind me," She turns and gestures to Mags, Finnick, and me. I see Finnick put on his capitol smile and I try to smile too. It doesn't work as well as his does. There is no sound from the audience. The bowls come forward. Every slip of paper in the guy's bowl has Fin's name on it. There are nine slips of paper in his bowl.

Each year his name was entered once for the number of years he was eligible enough, four years since he was reaped at fourteen, and the remaining three must have been from the three years he'd taken tesserae to help support his family. Usually, without taking tesserae, one will have their name entered thirty six times by the time they're eighteen.

I know I had twenty one of the papers in my bowl because my parents never let me take any tesserae and I was reaped at the age of sixteen. I was taught how to fish for my food instead. Finnick and his father fished too, but the tesserae was for his aunt and uncle who were very sick and couldn't eat the fish. I'm not sure how many slips of paper belong to Mags.

"We'll start with the ladies first," Kelly says. I close my eyes and feel the pressure of Finnick's hand in mine increase. He promised me he wasn't going to let me go back into the arena again. How can he have promised such a thing? Sure enough, Kelly calls my name. I start to stand up but Finnick holds me down as Mags steps forward to volunteer to take my place. At some point I've started screaming again and peacekeepers have to rip me from Finnick's arms.

"I love you, I'm coming home," his urgent last words reach my ears even through my screams. The peacekeepers pass me off to my parents who restrain me. I feel as though my heart has been ripped from my body as Kelly announces Finnick and Mags as the 75th Hunger Games tributes.

* * *

**Authors Note: **To my first reviewer Im Too Lazy To Sign In, and anyone else who feels the same way,

i'm sorry that you dont like the idea of me updating so fast. i just like to upload chapters as i finish them so that i wont forget to later and because most people are eager to find out what happens next.

i originally didnt think i was going to post this story, but after a while i decided "why not, i've posted all my other stories," so... here it is.

i promise my other stories havent been abandoned. i just dont really know where to go with them from where they are at and my heart has to really be into a story for me to feel like im being effective. i have the whole summer ahead of me now and currently i've got no job or plans for this new found freedom. the goal is to get some writing done. we'll see how that turns out.


	11. Finnick's POV 6

Finnicks POV- Five Years Later

Haymitch Abernathy, the usually drunk mentor from District 12, catches my arm as I depart the train after another long week at the Capitol.

"Odair! Good to see you!" he says loudly. "Are there any good bars around here?" I shake his hand from my arm.

"No, I don't believe there are," I tell him as I start to walk away.

"Not so fast pretty boy, I need to talk to you," he says in a low voice. "Sure there's not a bar around?" I give him a funny look, but with the intense gaze I get back, curiosity gets the best of me and I lead him to one of the nosier places in town. We enter and sit down at a table in the corner furthest from people. The waitress comes and takes our order. Naturally, Haymitch orders the strongest stuff District 4 has to offer. I order water. I don't want Annie to smell that I've been drinking. It would not be a good "hey I missed you," impression.

"Listen," he takes a swig of the bottle and sets it down on the table. He leans in close on his elbows and motions for me to do the same. I look around. There aren't any Peacekeepers in here tonight.

"You know that Seneca Crane was killed after my tributes pulled that stunt in the arena last year right?" he asks. I can barely hear him.

"So I heard. I also heard that some guy named Plutarch Heavensbee is the new head Gamemaker this year. It's the Quarter Quell, should be interesting." I respond.

"Oh, it will be. You see, Plutarch believes that Katniss has what it takes to start a District versus Capitol rebellion and come out with the Districts as the winning team." He watches me as this sinks in. The head Gamemaker wants to start a rebellion with a seventeen year old girl as our leader? I look at him in shock.

"That's not all. He's tipped me off about what the Games will consist of this year. The president doesn't write the Quell cards until the year of those Games. This year, he wants to kill Katniss again. His problem is, she's a Victor. She won and he can't touch her. Unless the card for this year's Games reads that the tributes for the third Quarter Quell will be reaped from the remaining Victors."

I'm silent as I listen to him. When he tells me that the Victors are going to be reaped again, my thoughts go directly to Annie. My Annie. Her own Games messed her up, there's no way I'm going to let her go back in again. I think of the other remaining District 4 Victor, Mags. Mags is half my family. One of them is going back into the Games with me this year. I'm going to lose one of them, but I can't lose Annie. I can't.

"I know. It's hard isn't it? I'm going to end up having to watch my two kids fight for their lives, again. I never thought I'd care about anyone again after the Capitol killed my family for the way I won my Games. I know I'm not the only one watching people I care about walk away from me again." He lowers his head. "But listen, there's a plan, we're getting a few of the Victors in on it." He slips me a gold bracelet. It has a Mockingjay on it.

"Plutarch doesn't want to kill the Victors any more than the rest of Panem does. He's got a plan to get as many of us out as he can." Haymitch explains how we have to befriend Katniss and keep Peeta alive in order to keep her as a friend. The moment he dies, whoever killed him, she will avenge his death. We have to be careful. He tells me how he wants Mags in on the plan because he knows Annie won't handle it well.

"I don't want to lose either of them. Would you talk to Mags about it?" I ask. I'm nothing but a coward. How could I ask someone who's as good as my grandmother, to risk her life for the girl I can't live without, as well as ask her to risk her life for the cause of the "rebellion"? It seems far too cruel to me.

~HG~HG~HG~

It's reaping week. This could be the last week I get to live. I hover closer to Annie than I usually do. She doesn't complain, but I see the worry in her eyes. If I don't have to tell her, I won't.

Reaping morning rolls around and I find myself wide awake no matter how hard I try otherwise. It's just after three in the morning, and I wonder if Annie's asleep, so I walk over to her house. I open her bedroom door and find that she, unlike me, has found peace enough to close her eyes and drift off. I don't want to disturb her, so I close the door again and lie down in the floor in front of the door. I'm pretty sure I managed to drift off to sleep, when I'm stepped on. Not even a second after I'm stepped on, Annie's screaming, and her parents rush into the hallway flipping the lights on in my face. Annie slumps down against the wall holding her knees to her chest, rocking back and forth, screaming. I crawl over and wrap my arms around her.

"I'm sorry Annie, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," I say. I was not expecting this. I pull her into my arms and hold her close until she calms down.

"I'm sorry," I look up at her parents. "I didn't want to wake her, I didn't mean to fall asleep either," Her mother looks like she's unsure of what to do or say, but her father looks upset. I really hope he doesn't get the wrong impression. Annie is nothing but my best friend and I would do anything to protect her. I wouldn't hurt her. Once her parent's see that she's safe and that I'm not going to hurt her, they retreat back into their room. I help Annie up out of the floor and together we enter her room.

"Finnick Odair. I don't know what your problem is, but you're scaring me," she says. I pull her into my lap and we sit in her window seat looking out at the sunrise over the ocean.

"I didn't mean to scare you Annie," I tell her. She leans back into me and I tighten my arms and rest my chin on her shoulder.

"No, not just this morning, I mean, your actions, they're scaring me. You're acting like we're never going to see each other again. Like the Capitol is going to take me away from you or they'll take you away from me. I don't mind being with you at all, but the closer the Games get the more you scare me." I find myself crying at her words. She's noticed more than I thought she did. She moves so she can look at me.

"I'm sorry Annie," I manage to say.

"Finnick, don't cry," she says. I hear the tears forming in her voice. I look up and see she's trying not to let them spill over. I pull her to me again.

"They are taking me away. They're going to separate us Annie. Or it'll be my luck they'll want to keep us together, but I won't let them hurt you. I won't let you go back into the arena. You would think that they'd give us a break. Let us be happy. We've been to hell and back to be together! But it's the Capitol. They want nothing more to ruin happiness." The tears won their battle and make their way down her face too.

"What do you mean they're taking you away? What are you talking about?" She asks

"The Quarter Quell is this year Annie. The 75th Hunger Games tributes are going to be reaped from the Victors of the other 74 Games." I wanted to protect her from this knowledge, and I've managed to hold back as long as I could.

"No," it starts out as a whisper. "No, No, No!" Gradually her screams get louder. There is nothing I can do; nothing I can say to make her pain go away. She screams, cries, hits me. Her parents come into the room again, but I hold up my hand and they too watch as she continues her fit. I will have to find time to apologize for the trouble I've caused them in the last hour.

When she stops screaming and starts heaving and retching and nothing comes up out of her stomach, I pull her to me again. She's cried until she made herself sick. I wouldn't care if she did throw up on me at this point.

"I will come home to you Annie. Don't you think otherwise. I will fight for you. I will do anything and everything to come home to you. I love you so much. I know you don't usually like to watch the Games, but promise me you'll watch these? It will make me feel better to know that you're watching over me even if you can't help me," I ask. I know it's a long shot, and I expect her to say no.

"As long as you promise I'll be able to hold you again. Be able to touch you, hug you, kiss you, laugh with you again, I promise I will watch the Games." she says.

"I promise Annie," and I know I can keep this promise. For some odd reason, I trust Haymitch is right. That we will get out of the arena alive. I just have to keep the others, who are not in on the plan, from killing me, or Mags, or Peeta, or Katniss. I hate that I'm risking my life for kids. That's all they are. Kids forced to grow up too fast, just like I did.

After our talk, she settles into my lap again and we watch the sunrise. We must have fallen asleep because it feels like only twenty minutes have passed, before her father comes in the room and is gently shaking us awake. Waking up with her in my arms no matter how long I've been asleep is the best feeling in the world right next to kissing her and holding her close. We get up and stretch. She walks me to her bedroom door that her dad left open, waiting for me to cross its threshold. This is going to be the last moment I'll get to be totally alone with her. I'm not going to pass it up.

When we get to the door, I swing it so that it closes in front of me, and then turn around and force my lips against hers. I feel her shock from the sudden movements, but when she relaxes into the kiss, I deepen it. Usually I try to be gentle and sweet so I won't scare her or hurt her, but the time for that is long gone. I want her to know that I love her with every fiber of my being; with every cell on my body. I need her to know that she's the only girl I will ever love, and that this will be the last time we get to be alone like this for a while. I need and want her to know how much I want her, how much I need her. If it weren't time to go get ready to be slaughtered, I'd give into her. I'd back her to her bed and she would be mine as much as I would be hers. I can't though. I can't hurt her like that. When these feelings surface, I stop them before I do start moving her backwards. I feel that she does understand everything I wanted and needed her to know. She clings to me after I break our kiss.

"I love you Annie Cresta. Whatever you do, don't ever forget that," I tell her between breaths. "Don't leave without me. I'm going to shower and change. Wait for me on the porch if you're ready before I am." We always walk together to the reapings.

"I love you too Finnick. I won't forget." I hug her tightly one last time, and then open the door and finally cross its barriers. There is no turning back now.

~HG~HG~HG~

I'm not going to dress up, or do anything out of the ordinary for this reaping. I change into my usual reaping attire, khaki shorts and a button up dress shirt. Every year Annie tries to get me to button it. Last year, I let her, but then I undid the buttons the moment she turned her back. When I meet her at the bottom of her front porch steps, she's wearing the spring green dress we bought together a few years ago. She looks beautiful. I take her hand in mine and we walk to the Justice Building together.

I stop before we get there. "We don't know what this year's Quell is alright?" I say. It's important that she act calm. At least until our names are called. She nods her head.

We take our places on the stage next to Mags who's already there waiting. Haymitch told me she agreed without a second thought that Annie was not to enter the Games again. Usually our chairs are spaced out, and for appearances, the only parts we touch are our feet. This year, I don't care. The Capitol is and has taken everything from me. I will do as I please now. I scoot my chair as close to Annie's as it can get and I lock our hands together. I'm going to try to keep it together for her. She needs me to be strong for her. I can't abandon her now. Not yet.

When Kelly steps forward to draw the announcement for the Quell, I squeeze her hand. She tries to reassure me. That's new. Usually I'm reassuring her.

"It's okay," she whispers.

"No it's not," I reply. Kelly steps to the microphone.

"This year's Hunger Games tributes will be reaped from previous Hunger Games tributes," she reads glumly. "That means that our contestants will be two of these three lovely Victors behind me," She turns and gestures to the three of us. There is not a sound. One would be able to hear a pen drop over the sound of the ocean.

The bowls are brought up on stage now. There are fifty one slips of papers in Mags and Annie's bowl. Twenty one of them have Annie's name on it. Annie has never taken tesserae. The other thirty belong to Mags. Mags was seventeen when she was reaped and took tesserae twice over the years. There are only nine slips of paper in my bowl.

"We'll start with the ladies first," Kelly says. Annie tenses beside me and I squeeze her hand. Kelly calls Annie's name. She starts to get up, but I hold her in her chair. Mags gets up instead and volunteers. Annie starts screaming again. She tries to jerk her arm away from mine and get up, but I don't let her. I hold her until the Peacekeepers are ripping her away from me.

"I love you, I'm coming home," I hope that my words reach her. I hope she heard me and she understands me. _Stay strong Annie_, I think. The Peacekeepers deposit her to her parents. Her father holds her close to his chest as her mother walks in front of them, adding her arms to the mix. I meet her father's eyes and there is some sort of an understanding that passes between us. I wish I would have told him, but its best that no one else knew. Kelly announces Mags and I as the tributes for the 75th Hunger Games and then we're directed straight to the trains. I'm glad that I didn't pass up the last chance I had to kiss her. Though I wish I'd had the chance to hug her one final time.


	12. Annie's POV 6 Part One

Annie's POV

I don't remember how I got here. I remember screaming and crying as I was ripped away from Finnick and thrust upon my parents, and Finnick and Mags were announced Victors of the 75th Hunger Games, but this room is too bright and totally unfamiliar.

"Annie, honey?" my mother's voice comes softly from my side. There's a TV on. It's showing the Hunger Games.

"Mom?" I manage to croak out. I turn my head to the sound of her voice and she takes my hand in hers. They're as soft and as gentle as they've always been.

"You're awake, good," she says. "I'm here baby, I love you."

"I love you too," it comes out as a whisper. Her hands are soft in mine and I attempt to squeeze hers to reassure her that I'm okay. "The games?" I ask. "Fin?"

"Finnick's fine honey. He's okay. They've been on for two days now." I nod my head and close my eyes again.

"Where's dad?" I ask. She doesn't answer. "Where's dad?" I ask again looking at her this time. There are tears glistening in her eyes. "Mom," tears form in my own eyes. She's looking down at her hands in her lap. She chokes on her words.

"I'm sorry honey, I'm so sorry,"

"He's gone isn't he?" she nods her head. I close my eyes and lean back into my pillow further. Gone. Just like that. I don't remember the last time I told him I loved him. I don't remember the last thing I told him at all. Sobs wrack through my body. My mother crawls up in my bed and holds me while we cry together.

~HG~HG~HG~

I was released from the hospital again a few days later. My mother has kept me updated on how the Games are coming along. I feel bad for being asleep or unconscious for most of them this far. She says I've missed the worst parts. I missed Mags dying from weird fog. I missed Katniss and Peeta saving Finnick's life by drenching him in the ocean after the fog attack. I missed Finnick and Katniss curl up and wish for death when they heard the screams that the Jabberjay's produced.

"It was so real that when I heard them I came running to make sure you were alright," she tells me. I was asleep of course.

I promised I'd watch the Games so I make an extra effort to come down the stairs after I wake up every morning and I sit and have breakfast with my mom as they play a recap of what happened over the night. There's nothing different with this morning. There's nothing interesting to me in the recaps. Finnick's still alive, that's all I care about.

I see Peeta and Katniss on the screen together. I feel so bad for them. They're not too much different from Finnick and me. They love each other even though Katniss hasn't quite realized it. They've been thrown into the Games before and survived. But they have each other. I imagine it's harder for Finnick than it is for me. I don't have the chance to get to know them like he's getting. I only can see what the Capitol shows while Finnick has to watch everything else. My heart hurts from missing him.

Later that night, they've almost put together some sort of trap for the last two careers. Something goes wrong. Peeta tries to attack the man from District 3, the woman, Johanna, from District 7 has attacked Katniss and the careers are running after her, Finnick runs in the direction that Katniss and Johanna went. There is a lot of screaming. All of them are screaming someone else's name trying to find their ally and their enemy.

The screen turns black and all is silent. I feel like no one in Panem is breathing right now. I know I'm not. My mother reaches for my hand. There are peacekeepers outside shouting different things here and there. Together my mother and I cross to the window and see that people are being ordered left and right to return to their houses or die. People are being forced from their market stalls, from the streets, from the beaches. Something happened with that black out that is throwing the entire country of Panem into total chaos.

~HG~HG~HG~

Several days go by and the streets are empty aside from peacekeepers. The ocean looks lonely without the people of District 4 swimming about her mist. The train rolls in bringing more peacekeepers. They walk right up to my house and I hear the knocks on the door. My mother doesn't answer. Instead, I hear her soft footsteps run up the stairs and she bursts into my room. She closes the door and locks it behind her

"I will not let them take you from me," she says as she envelopes me in a hug. "We have been through way too much for them to do this to us. I love you baby girl," They're here for me. What do they want with me? I'm just the mad lone Victor from District 4. Nothing that anyone would want. Unless they're Finnick Odair of course.

We hear them break down door after door until they come to my room. My mother holds me closer.

"I love you mom," I say. If this is the last chance I get to see her I want to remember that I told her I loved her. I want to remember what my last words to her were. Those four are a good choice. I'm still upset that I can't remember those details for my father. Nothing but silent tears pass between us until the peacekeepers finally bust down the door that was keeping them from us.

"We don't want a fight. We just want Annie Cresta to come with us. If you let her go, you'll live. If we have to take her from you, the chance of your survival isn't very likely," I almost want to beg my mom to let me go. I don't want her to die for me even though I know she would.

"I love you," she whispers to me. "I'm not letting go," there's no way she's going to be able to fight them all off. They step forward and begin trying to pry me from her arms.

"Mom!" I'm screaming and she's screaming. When they finally get us apart, she turns and tries to attack the man holding her away from me. She manages to break his hold on her and she lunges forward to try to break the hold another peacekeeper has on me. She grabs the first thing in her reach – my table lamp – and shatters the light bulb against one of their heads.

Her screams are suddenly silenced with a simple twist of her neck. I hear the bones break over my screams. The sickening crunch of bone against bone. The thud of a now empty lifeless body against the floor. My heart that has already been ripped in half twice seems to have found that it can rip in half a third time. There will be nothing left of it by the time Finnick returns to me. If he returns to me.

~HG~HG~HG~

When the train rolls into the capitol I'm afraid. My nightmares and everything else that haunts me comes rushing back to me and I struggle against the peacekeepers. Slowly but surely losing my mind again. No amount of screaming or biting or hitting or scratching seems to phase them as they carry me from the train. I'm unaware of where I'm going and I don't really care.

They let me scream and pitch a fit which is unusual. Normally I've been rendered unconscious by now. It takes a group of seven of them to take me wherever we're going. They throw me down in a chair in some office and tie me down. Silly peacekeepers. I grew up in District 4. Rope is a common child's toy. As they leave the room I start to work on untying myself.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," A man's voice says behind me. I turn my head to find President Snow entering the room. I shrink away from him. I miss Finnick now more than ever. I've never been here in the Capitol without him.

"I'm sure you are aware that something happened in the arena. Something that we had no control over." He watches me with his eyes. I try to look away but they've captivated me. They're bloodshot. A very deep crimson red. My mind starts racing with thoughts of my Games and it takes all my strength and effort not to start screaming at the horrors.

"We weren't able to capture your darling Finnick Odair, but there are a few other Victors you might know. Peeta Melark from District 12, Johanna Mason from District 7, and Enobaria Cash from District 1." He wipes a finger across my cheek and spins me around so I can see as the three other Victors are shoved through the door. Johanna takes one look at me and gasps.

"How dare you!" she spits at the man behind me. "How dare you take someone so innocent, who you already destroyed once, and try to destroy her again!"

"It's not her I'm aiming to destroy my dear. It's her lover boy, Mr. Odair." I hear the smile in his voice. He thinks harming me and Finnick is amusing does he? I'll show him. I try again to untie the knots but then his hands are on mine.

"Get your hands off of her," Peeta yells from across the room. He's trying to break free from the Peacekeepers to get to me. He doesn't even know me.

"Take Miss. Cresta, Mr. Melark and Miss. Mason to their holding cells until I instruct you to do something else with them. Leave Miss. Cash here with me," President Snow says. There is a lot of screaming going on now. Peeta trying to defend me, Johanna cursing more than the sailors in District 4 ever did, and me. I tried to hold onto the tiny fragment of sanity that I had but I've lost it now. I'm so far gone I don't even try to fight them this time.

~HG~HG~HG~

My cell is one across from Peeta. Next to him is Johanna. I watch each day as Peeta is taken in the morning and then comes back each night looking sicker than the day before. I can't help but to wonder what they're doing to him. Johanna is vicious against her captors. She rages and screams and yells. After we've been there for a handful of weeks, they come and knock her out. I watch as they shave away her long beautiful hair. I run my hands through mine silently begging them not to shave me bald. I'm thankful when they turn the razor off and throw her back in her cell. They leave the pile of hair in the doorway. When she awakes, her hands go immediately to her head and then she sees the hair. She screams louder than I've heard, saying more things that would put a sailor to shame, and then she cries. It hurts to watch her break down like that. She seemed to strong, so feisty, so independent. Watching her struggle and still seem to come out on top has helped me stay strong. Even the strongest of us fall sometimes.

As for me, they question me asking me things that I honestly don't know such as where Finnick is now or how much I knew about the rebel break out plan. Finnick knew about it, I can guess that much since he knew about the Quarter Quell ahead of time. They ask me those types of questions over and over again and when I don't answer or tell them that I don't know, they beat me. There are whips that they hit me with. Sometimes they even use their fists. They put sharp metal rings on their fingers and punch me wherever they can reach.

They only want to harm me but not kill me. They're keeping me here trying to get to Finnick. As much as I want him to come rescue me, I hope he doesn't. I hope he's smart enough to figure out that they won't kill me as long as he lives somewhere. I just don't want him to come here though. That will get us both killed for sure. I realize that Peeta is here for the same reasons as I am. The Capitol wants to get to Katniss because apparently she loves him. It's obvious that he loves her. I don't know why they're keeping Johanna alive but I'm oddly glad that they do.

The questioning and the beatings for me are an everyday thing. Peeta and Johanna's torture seems to be an everyday thing too. Peeta is taken every early morning and comes back late at night looking even more ravaged than the day before. I don't know what they're doing to him and I don't think I want to know. Whatever it is, he's not in good health anymore. Johanna suffers from something else. I'm not quite sure what, but most nights she sits in her cell shivering because whatever torture they bestowed upon her involved water, and she's drenched. They don't bother giving her dry clothes or a towel.

I don't know how I survive half of the things that they do to me. Maybe it's the fact that my cell has a tiny window to the outside. I keep track of the days and nights. It brings me peace to have something to do. Something to keep track of. I often find myself screaming awake from nightmares and then scream and cry for hours after I wake because I have nothing to comfort me. I imagine I won't have a voice before too much longer. All the screaming might permanently damage my vocal cords.

Eventually they take my clothes from me because the cloth sticks to my wounds and while they intend to inflict pain and make me bleed, the last thing they want is for me to get blood poisoning and die. I'm given nothing but a sheet to cover myself.

Almost two months have passed since we've been here. Tonight, I was sleeping soundly. They inflicted more pain than they normally do and I as good as passed out when I got back to my cell. Tonight, I wake up not from my own screams, or screams from Peeta and Johanna, but from screams that are unfamiliar to me. I wrap the sheet around me and move to my door. Peeta and Johanna are standing at their cell doors too. The screams come from further down the hall. They're screams from the Peacekeepers and other people dressed in grey uniforms. Several of the men in grey come down the hall and stop in front of our cells.

"Gale?" Peeta calls. I think it's a good thing that he recognizes one of them. There's someone that Johanna recognizes too, he's busy unlocking the door to her cell, but all of these faces are unfamiliar to me.

After Johanna's cell has been unlocked and she's released into the arms of the person she knows, the one Peeta called Gale catches the keys and unlocks my cell. He then tosses the keys to a third person who unlocks Peeta. Gale reaches his hand out to me.

"You must be Annie. I remember you from your Games. It's okay. You can trust me, we're here to rescue you, to take you back to District 13," I cringe away from his hand. There are more shouts from up the hall.

"Just grab her and let's go! They're coming," one of the other grey suited men yells.

"Come on Annie, we're going to save you. We're going to take you to Finnick. He's in District 13 waiting for you," He knows Finnick? He knows where Finnick is? I decide to take his hand and I hold the sheet closer to me. When the door at the end of the hall bursts open and Peacekeepers come running, Gale throws me over his shoulder in one quick motion and we run after the others. We're almost aboard a hovercraft that's waiting for us when something happens. Gale throws me forward and I land on the door of the hovercraft scratching my back against the sharp metal frame. Someone lifts me up into it and I'm passed into the hands of a female. I look back at the opening and see that someone else is dragging Gale into the hovercraft and he's clutching his side. Something hit him and he's in pain.

The chaos is enough that Peeta is being restrained in a chair because he's trying to attack anyone and everyone who gets too close. Eventually they knock him out. I'm not sure what else happens after that because I've lost all sense of everything I know. They inject the same drug into my arm and I fall into a peaceful sleep.

* * *

**Authors Note: **I'm not doing a Finnick's POV on this particular part of the story because 90% of it is in either Catching Fire or Mockingjay so the next POV i upload is Annie's POV 6 part two.


	13. Annie's POV 6 Part Two

Annie's POV (part two)

When I wake, I'm not sure where I am. One would think I'd be used to waking up in hospital rooms with the uncomfortable beds and too bright lights.

"Annie?" a girl's voice asks. I look and find a little blonde girl sitting beside my bed. She holds both of her hands up to show she's defenseless.

"You're going to be okay now. My name is Prim. You've been rescued from the Capitol and we're going back to District 13. Finnick's there. He misses you." She says the last part sadly. I let her words sink in. My first thoughts are that Finnick is okay and I'm going to see him again soon, but then I register she said District 13. I also remember Gale mentioned something about District 13.

"District 13 was destroyed?" I ask turning to look at her.

"Yes, it was, but the one thing the Capitol didn't take into account when they destroyed District 13, was that they operated underground. The nuclear radiation was too much for them to operate above ground. When they were bombed that's where the people retreated to. They've been in hiding for the last seventy five years. Those of us who survived the bombing in District 12 escaped there. They've welcomed us in like their own. There are also other people from other Districts who've managed to escape their homes and come to the safety of 13." I look at Prim. She's such a little girl.

"You're Katniss's sister aren't you?" I ask. I remember the 74th games. This is the little girl Katniss volunteered for. She was only twelve then so she can't be any older than thirteen or fourteen now.

"Yeah," she smiles brightly at the mention of her sister. I turn away and close my eyes.

"You're okay now though. District 13 is the safest District in Panem right now. Nothing will be able to hurt you there. We should be there soon," she says. I hear her reposition herself in the chair.

"How long have you been here?" I ask. She didn't make any effort to get up and leave my bedside.

"A few hours. Gale told me that he thought you might need someone of your own gender to be here when you woke up. Said he had to tell you about Finnick to get you to trust him enough to escape. Do you want me to leave?" she asks.

"No, I'm glad that you're here. I don't think I'd feel as comfortable if another man I didn't know was in here. Finnick is in 13 and he is okay though right?" I ask looking at her again. I roll over on my side to face her better.

"He's there. He misses you more than anything," she avoids answering his well-being but it looks like there's something else she's not mentioning.

"What else Prim?" I'll have to coax it out of her.

"I don't know if most of us would consider him okay or not." She says. The look on my face keeps her talking "Physically, he's perfectly fine. It's just that he knows the Capitol had you. He knows more about what they do to people than a lot of us do, and he's made himself sick a time or two because he's worried about you. I've never seen anyone love someone else as much as he loves you," there are tears in her eyes. There are tears in my eyes too. I know Finnick loves me. I never doubted that for a second. I also know people question our relationship just as often as I've questioned why someone as popular as Finnick Odair chose me, the mad victor of District 4 to love.

"I'm sorry Annie," she says when she looks up to see the tears in my eyes.

"It's alright. I miss him a lot too." No more words are spoken until a woman who looks like Prim enters the room.

"Oh, you're awake! I'm Nurse Everdeen," she says upon seeing me. She looks worried for a moment as she looks between Prim and me. "We're almost to District 13. Run along and see if the others need anything before we land Prim," she says. The little girl looks at me once more before giving me a sweet, warm smile and then leaving the room.

"We didn't expect that the Capitol would have taken your clothes. Johanna and Peeta still have theirs, so you'll have to keep the sheet around you until we can find you some. Come on, I'll walk down with you." She extends her hand out to me like Gale did. I slowly sit up and pull the sheet from the bed wrapping it around me making it stay.

"I'm sure Finnick will be waiting for you," she says with a smile as I take her hand and we leave the room.

When we get to District 13, there is a lot of chaos as people are being taken to the hospital part of 13. Everyone there seems to have been anxious for our return. I look around to see if Finnick is here somewhere. Surely they told him they were rescuing me. Nurse Everdeen holds my hand and leads me through the halls since I have no idea where I'm going. She's holding onto my hand and directing people in different directions when I see him. He's with Katniss and she's just abandoned him to try and go into one of the rooms where I see Gale's side is being examined. I shake my hand away from Nurse Everdeen and yell for Finnick as I run to him. He sees me and catches me into his arms just before I slam into him. Nothing else in the world matters in this moment except him; his arms around me as we fall into the wall he was standing in front of. No words are passed between us as we take in the fact that after the three long painful months we finally have each other and nothing in the world is going to come between us. Eventually we're directed into one of the rooms.

"I was just in here!" Finnick complains as they tell us this is where they want us. I look curiously at him wondering why he was just in one of their hospital rooms. I remember what Prim told me about how he made himself sick with worry. He shakes his head not seeing my glance and I wrap my arms around him again.

"It's alright Annie, I'm here, I'm not leaving you again," he says in response and pulls me close to him.

"Why were you in here?" I ask.

"Oh," he's quiet for a moment. "I missed you,"

"I missed you too but that doesn't answer my question," I turn my head to look up at him.

"That is the answer. I was in here because I missed you. I missed you so much I went crazy trying to stay strong. Trying to help Katniss stay strong for her loss of Peeta. They finally had to sedate me. I'm okay now Annie. I have you, nothing else matters," he says to my glare.

"I love you," he says resting his forehead against mine. "Are you alright?" he rubs his hands up and down my arms. I feel in his hands that he's been playing with rope recently. They're hard and prickly and scratch my skin.

"I love you too. I guess I'm alright. Just scratched and bruised is all."

"Annie, this is not just a scratch," he runs a finger across a line on my cheek. It stings. "It's a gash, they hurt you. I'm so sorry Annie I should have done something different. I should have made sure you were safe." There are tears in his eyes and he pulls me closer to him.

"It's from today. Of course they hurt me! They don't just lock their prisoners up and watch them all day long! They needed you to think that they were hurting me, and even more than that they knew you'd see me again eventually. They needed you to see that they hurt me. I'm alright now though." Tears are streaming down both our faces and my attempts at mocking him don't turn out right at all as I repeat his own line back to him, "I have you, nothing else matters," It's true. He sits down on the bed and pulls me into his lap as we cry together.

~HG~HG~HG~

I was assigned a compartment of my very own even against Finnick's protests that I stay with him. He tried to convince them that it was a waste of a compartment. President Coin didn't care. Even though my compartment is on the same hall as his, we usually spend our time together in one or another. Most nights are spent in his compartment because mine is so lonely. He refuses to sleep in the bed with me unless I wake from a nightmare. We usually stay up talking until one or the other of us falls asleep. He says what Coin doesn't know won't hurt anyone. It's not like we're going to do anything anyways.

It takes me a while to adjust to District 13. I'm used to the open air, the smell and sound of the ocean, the warmth of the sun on my skin. Here its stuffy being underground all the time but at least I'm safe and I have Finnick. He doesn't have to leave me for Capitol women anymore but he does have to leave me for whatever Coin has him doing. I'm introduced to the Victor from District 3 that was in the arena with them. His name is Beetee and he's smarter than anyone I've ever known. He spends time with me when Finnick is occupied with other things. He shows me the gardens in Special Defense and that's where I spend most of my time. It's as close to the outside as it gets here in 13.

I'm sitting among the flowers watching the mechanical animals chase one another. A pair of squirrels run up and around the artificial tree chattering happily at one another. Birds chirp and splash around in the bird baths. I haven't figured out how that works since they're mechanical birds and they're playing in water. A rabbit flees from its hole in the ground and sprints across the field. I smell him as he approaches me. Finnick has found sugar cubes. I smile as I feel him set something on my head before he sits down next to me holding the box out to me.

"Want one?" he asks with his seducing smile. He knows he doesn't have to use that on me because I fall for him even when he's not trying. Trying to seduce me usually causes me to giggle. I take a cube from the box and plop it in my mouth. It's warm and sweet. I haven't had one of these in a long time.

"Where were you today?" I ask leaning against his shoulder. "They told me you left 13."

"I did. I couldn't stand that while you're the only thing from 4 that I love with all my heart, there were still a few things that I've missed. These for one," he shakes the box at me.

"You went to District 4? Are you insane?" I ask turning my body to face him.

"Maybe I am," he smiles at me.

"It's not funny Finnick. You could have been killed." His smile fades as he puts his hand on my knee.

"I know. I was careful though. I didn't go back looking like this. They dressed me in real clothes and gave me a wig and sunglasses to wear so people didn't know me. I just wanted to get a few things from my house and yours." He looks sad now. "Did you know that your parents – "I put my hand over his mouth before he can finish his sentence. I close my eyes trying to block out the memory and the sound of my mother's death.

"I watched her die," I choke. It's all I can manage to say before the tears and the memory takes me over. Finnick pulls me into his lap and wraps his arms around me.

"I'm sorry Annie, I didn't know," he says rocking me. It wasn't his fault. Like he said, he didn't know. When he feels that the sobs have worked their way out of my system he kisses the top of my head.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know," he repeats. "I brought you some things for your compartment," he rubs my back and pulls the sack that I didn't notice before around to the other side of him. The first thing he pulls out is my teddy bear. I thought that I had cried until I could cry no more but the sight of the bear brings more tears to my eyes. I reach my hand out to it and when he gives it to me I pull it close to my chest. It's warm. It makes me miss the sunlight. He tightens his arm around me as he closes the bag. I assume that's all he's going to show or give me right now.

I've almost fallen asleep when I hear a pair of footsteps enter the room.

"We're going down for dinner now Annie, oh, Finnick, you're back!" Beetee says. "Is she alright?" he asks concerned. I feel Finnick twist his neck and look down at me.

"She's alright. I upset her a bit. Here, will you take this? I think I'm going to take her back to her compartment unless she wakes up before we get there." He hands Beetee something. I assume that it's the bag of things he brought from District 4 and then carefully adjusts me in his arms and gets up. I hold onto the teddy bear tighter so he won't fall. He takes the bag back from Beetee and carries me back to the compartment like he said he was going to. I'm not sure if it's my compartment or his but he sets the bag down and then I feel him look down at me again.

"I know you're awake," he says. I open one eye to look at him and then wrap one arm around his neck. I don't want him to let me go. He chuckles and then sets me on the bed and climbs in beside me. "Are you hungry?" he asks as I curl into him. I am hungry, but I don't want to move from his arms.

"I love you," I whisper pulling myself as close as I can get. He smiles as he rolls us over. He's on top of me but holding himself off enough that he's barely touching me. I tried to keep my arms around his waist but they're too short for that so I settle for reaching up and wrapping them around his neck instead.

"I love you too. So much. That's part of the reason I went back to District 4 today you know. I wanted to bring you back some things that I thought you might like to have. Like the teddy bear for example." The bear had rolled off to my side. I smile as our eyes lock. I have the sudden urge to pull him down closer to me and kiss him but I know better. We both know neither of us would have the strength to stop before things got out of control and he knows that I'm not ready for that yet. He rolls back over onto his side pulling me with him and that's when he allows himself to kiss me. It's a soft gentle kiss like so many before have been but it's different. Sweeter. When he pulls away he asks me if I'm hungry again.

"I wish we could bring something here," I tell him in response. I'm still not ready to leave the circle of his arms.

"I know. They're picky about things like that though." He says sadly. He sits up and then reaches a hand to pull me up too. "Come on, they don't keep the café open all night,"


	14. Finnick's POV 7

Finnick's POV

If I thought leaving her for the Games was bad enough, it's pure hell to be trapped in District 13 while Annie is trapped in the Capitol, and lord knows what they're doing to her there. I sit in the room with Katniss, as together we concentrate on the rope we have. We don't talk. I think she prefers it better that way. She hasn't ever come off as a people person. They sent out a rescue team to go to the Capitol to bring back Peeta, Annie, and Johanna. In just a few hours I'll either have my sweet Annie in my arms again, or she'll be as good as dead.

I'm not sure how much time has passed before Katniss breaks the silence.

"Do you think they're alright?" she asks. She misses and needs Peeta, as much as I miss and need Annie. We've been sedated a time or two together because the need for our companion has driven us to a breaking point.

"I don't know. I hope they are. I hope they'll be here soon." I'm frustrated because the knot that I tied isn't coming undone as easily as it was put together. We settle back into silence. There's no need to fill the emptiness with words anyways. I don't know what to say to her.

Another forever passes, but this time the silence is broken by Haymitch. He opens the door to tell us that they're back. They're back! The words are still trying to sink their way into my brain when Katniss tugs on my hand and begins to lead me after Haymitch. I'm going to see my Annie again in a matter of minutes now. I'm not sure what to think. Of course, I'm happy and excited, but how will she look? What has the Capitol done to her? How many new scars will she have? All these questions are running through my head as we get closer and closer and finally enter the hospital ward.

Katniss sees Gale and tries to go in after him, but is pushed back. Her priority is getting to Peeta. Suddenly, I hear my name. My name has escaped the lips of a voice I would know dead or alive, and I haven't quite figured out which one I am right now. All of my thoughts disappear and my head is empty until my arms have found their way around her waist, and we fall into the wall clinging to one another.

It's been three long painful months and finally I have her. For once, I'm speechless and after the silence I shared with Katniss, I don't have anything to say to Annie. Nothing except maybe I love her, but the words just don't make their way to my mouth. Instead I hold her closer, tighter, like something as simple as the air between our bodies might take her away from me again.

After a while I'm tapped on the shoulder by one of the doctors. They motion us into the room I'm very familiar with. It's the room that I'm usually admitted to.

"I was just in here!" I complain. I don't like this room. It's very boring. I sigh and run one hand through my hair and my other arm wraps around Annie as she wraps her own arms around my waist again.

"It's alright Annie, I'm here, I'm not leaving you again," I tell her as I bring my other arm down to put around her.

"Why were you in here?" she asks. She caught that didn't she?

"Oh," of course she would want to know that. I wonder if she was told how much I've missed her. "I missed you," I tell her. It's both the answer to her question, as well as how I feel right now.

"I missed you too, but that doesn't answer my question," she looks up at me with a confused look upon her face. I shake my head.

"That is the answer. I was in here because I missed you. I missed you so much I went crazy trying to stay strong. Trying to help Katniss stay strong for her loss of Peeta. They finally had to sedate me. I'm okay now Annie. I have you, nothing else matters." She glares at me when I mention that they had to sedate me. I pull her away from me enough so that I can rest my forehead against hers.

"I love you," I tell her. I rub my hands up and down her arms. "Are you alright?" I ask. I'm worried about her.

"I love you too." She says. "I guess I'm alright. Just scratched and bruised is all."

"Annie, this is not just a scratch," I run my finger along a gash on her cheek. "It's a gash, they hurt you. I'm so sorry Annie. I should have done something different. I should have made sure you were safe," I told myself I could stay strong in her presence. I told myself I wouldn't cry in front of her. I pull her closer to me.

"It's from today. Of course they hurt me! They don't just lock their prisoners up and watch them all day long! They needed you to think that they were hurting me, and even more than that they knew you'd see me again eventually. They needed you to see that they hurt me. I'm alright now though." Both of us are crying now. She tries to mock me but through her tears I hear nothing but the truth. "I have you, nothing else matters," I pull her into my arms and sit down on the bed as we cry together.

~HG~HG~HG~

President Coin assigned Annie her own compartment. I try to protest. "Please let her stay with me. It would be better for the both of us. She can have my room and I'll take the couch if you're worried that we'd do anything. Please!" I'm begging her. I don't want to be separated from Annie for any amount of time. It's for the sake of our sanity.

"No, she'll be assigned her own compartment in the same hall as you." She will not change her answer no matter how hard I try to convince her otherwise. It eventually doesn't matter, because we spend nights together in my compartment anyways. I let her have my bed to sleep in, and while she tries to convince me to sleep in the bed with her, I refuse unless she wakes up screaming from a nightmare. Only then will I crawl into bed and pull her into my arms. It's more for her benefit than mine.

~HG~HG~HG~

When Coin finally makes me stick to a set schedule like every other person in District 13, it usually leaves me far from Annie. I know she's having trouble getting used to being underground still, so I take her to Special Defense in the mornings and leave her with Beetee. She likes the meadow that's down there. Often times around dinner when I come to get her, she's sitting in the grass watching the scenery and the animals around her.

Today is just like every other day. Except today, I'm going to District 4. There were some pictures that I wanted to get from my house, and I figure Annie would appreciate the teddy bear I got her as well as pictures of her own family. I also partly want to check up on her parents. They're not here in 13 and Annie hasn't mentioned them. I take Annie down to Special Defense like every morning, leaving her with a kiss, and then I head to meet Katniss's prep team. They're the only prep team here in District 13 that I trust oddly enough, since they're Capitol women. I don't think Annie would like the idea of them touching me in any way.

They've entirely transformed me into someone I don't even know. I'm given a black wig that comes down to the base of my neck; clothes that a normal District person wears instead of the no shirt and shorts that I prefer, and a pair of sunglasses to hide my eyes. I'm also not allowed to smile at anyone for any reason. My smile is known all across Panem.

The ride to District 4 only takes about an hour and a half. They're cautious when they let me off the hovercraft, and one of the others follows me from a distance to serve as back up should I need it. The last thing I need is to be captured and taken to the Capitol myself. Annie would never forgive me.

My house and her house, and even Mags' house, are still intact. No life teems from any of the houses in the Victor's Village. Luckily there are no Peacekeepers around. I start with my house. I go around from room to room collecting pictures and photo albums. I leave my room for last because I know I miss it and I know I'm going to want to bring half of it back with me. I'm limited to one big trash bag for my house, and one for Annie's as it is. We plan to come back after the war. If we live through it anyways. Maybe then I'll get to marry her.

The idea never really struck me until now. What if I could marry her in 13? I wonder if I could find wedding bands of my parents, or even her parents. She would love that. I look around in my parents' room. I remember that mom was buried wearing her ring, but dad had taken his off when he got sick because he didn't want to lose it. It takes me twenty minutes to rummage through the drawers to find it. This, I stick in my pocket.

When I come out, I find that Gale is the one who trailed me through the District.

"There you are! What took you so long?" he asks.

"I was looking for something. I still have to sweep through Annie's house. Who're you taking this back to? I don't want anything to happen to it." The bag contains several of my parent's keepsakes that had been passed from generation to generation, pictures and photo albums of friends and family, and other things from my childhood and teenage years that are things that I cherish and didn't realize I missed until I saw them. Also, there are several big boxes of sugar cubes. I keep one on my person. Annie is probably going to want to kill me when I return to 13 tonight.

"I'm taking it back to Boggs to load up," Gale says as I hand him the bag. "I'll be careful with it. Try not to take so long in Annie's house alright? I don't want to look suspicious just standing around in the middle of this place alone." He says. I nod my head. I'll try.  
As I enter Annie's house, I immediately smell that something is wrong. Something is off and I just can't put my finger on it. While my room was the last room I visited in my house, Annie's room is the first room I visit in her house. I know that's where her most prized possessions are. Her door is standing open and there's a smell that doesn't smell familiar to me. I walk into her room and find it's a mess. Her mother is lying crumpled on the ground with her neck twisted much too far to the left. The lampstand is thrown in the floor, and the shattered bulb has long dried blood on it. Mrs. Cresta must have been trying to protect Annie, as the Peacekeepers came to take her away. It breaks my heart to think of what Annie's been through.

I decide that I will give her mother a proper burial. I carry the body downstairs and tell Gale that I want to bury her. He helps me find a good place and starts to dig the hole when I notice she's wearing her wedding bands. I slowly slip them off her finger and open my dad's box and place them inside. I think that our parents would have wanted that for us. I'll have my dad's band and she'll have her mother's bands.

"Any sign of her dad?" Gale asks when we're done and we're headed back to Annie's house for me to finish gathering some of Annie's things.

"No, but I'm sure he's either hiding somewhere, or he's not alive anymore either." I tell him. "I'll try not to take too long," I say as I enter her house again. I continue up to her room where I start bagging the things that she kept in and around her bed. I don't want the teddy bear to be on the bottom, so I'll carry him around and put him in last. I shift through some of her drawers because I know she keeps stuff hidden in them, and I find her box of sugar cubes as well as notes I wrote her over the years and more pictures.

I gather a few things from a few other places in the house but I'm unsure of what she might like to have in 13 with her. Her bag isn't nearly as full as mine was. As we travel back to District 13, I hang onto the bear and my box of sugar. Every now and then I brush my hand against my pocket to make sure the box of rings is still there. It is.

"What's with the bear Soldier?" one of the others ask me when they see it.

"It's Annie's. I bought it for her about after her Games. She's kept it ever since. I thought she might like to have it in 13 with her," I tell them. I then proceed to munch on a sugar cube.

~HG~HG~HG~

It's been a long day, and I'm exhausted and hungry as I head down to Special Defense to gather Annie for dinner. I've dropped off the bags in my compartment and I've stowed the rings away in a sock at the bottom of my drawer. I bring a smaller bag with me that contains Annie's bear and some sugar cubes. Today is like every other day to her, because I'm back to pick her up in time for dinner. I wonder what she knows. What she was told if she was told anything at all.

I brace myself as I walk over to where she usually sits watching the animals run around. I made her a crown of flowers from flowers that I picked just before leaving District 4 and I place it on her head as I sit down beside her. I see the smile that tells me she knows I've been reunited with my sugar so I go ahead and hold the box out to her.

"Want one?" I ask attempting to use my charm to seduce her. I know she's the only one who laughs at me instead of falls for me when I do that. She takes a cube and puts it in her mouth. She's missed the taste of them too. I almost want to ask her if I've still tasted like them when we kiss, but I figure I'll find that out later.

"Where were you today?" she leans against my shoulder, "they told me you left 13" I wince as she says this, but I calmly answer her anyways.

"I did. I couldn't stand that while you're the only thing from 4 that I love with all my heart, there were still a few things that I've missed. These for one," I shake the box at her and smile. I feel her anger flare up in her. She's going to want to hurt me at least.

"You went to District 4? Are you insane?" she asks angrily as she turns to face me better.

"Maybe I am," I joke.

"It's not funny Finnick. You could have been killed." I've upset her. I hate seeing her upset and it's even worse when I know I've caused it. I place my hand on her knee.

"I know. I was careful though. I didn't go back looking like this. They dressed me in real clothes, and gave me a wig and sunglasses to wear so people didn't know me. I just wanted to get a few things from my house and yours." I remember her mother and sadness fills my emotions. "Did you know that your parents – " she puts her hand over my mouth to stop the rest of my sentence. Almost instantly she's crying. Her eyes are closed and her hands go to her ears. I've screwed up majorly this time.

"I watched her die," she manages to say. I pull her into my lap and wrap my arms tightly around her as I rock back and forth.

"I'm sorry Annie, I didn't know" I kiss the top of her head and try to comfort her. I feel like a real jerk. First I upset her, and then I made her cry. So now all I can do is hold her while she cries and hope that she'll forgive me.

Eventually she does stop crying, and I take this moment to see if the teddy bear might cheer her up. I had other plans for how I wanted tonight to turn out, but I guess I'll have to wait a little longer.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know," I tell her again. "I brought you some things for your compartment," I rub her back gently, and then reach around and pull the bag I brought around to my left side so that she can see me pull it out of the bag. I pull the bear out. She starts to cry again but her hands have left her ears so I think that these aren't tears of anguish or sorrow, but tears of happiness. She reaches for the bear and the instant her fingers wrap around it, she pulls it tightly against her. I close the bag and wrap my arms around her again. The rest of the things I've brought can wait.

She's closed her eyes and we're just sitting her together in silence. The tears have stopped again and I hope they don't come back. I kiss the top of her head a time or two and whisper and remind her that I love her. I'm sure she's fallen asleep in the warmth and comfort of my arms.

"We're going down for dinner now Annie, oh, Finnick, you're back!" Beetee enters the room. "Is she alright?" I'm sure her face shows that she's been crying and he probably can tell from the way I'm holding her that she was upset about something. I move my head to look at her face better. Sure enough, there are dried tear streaks down her face and her eyes are still closed.

"She's alright. I upset her a bit. Here, will you take this?" I move to hand him the bag, "I think I'm going to take her back to her compartment unless she wakes up before we get there." Carefully, I readjust Annie in my arms and stand up. From the way she moves, I know that she's not asleep. If she was, I've just woken her. She wraps her hand around the teddy bear tighter too. I don't think Beetee noticed this, but I know I did. I take the bag back from Beetee, and the three of us leave Special Defense together. We turn toward the compartments as Beetee heads over to the café for dinner. I unlock my own compartment and in the living room I set the bag down and then head toward my room.

"I know you're awake," I say to Annie. She opens one eye to look at me. I could kiss her because she's so beautiful. She wraps her top arm around my neck trying to pull herself closer. I chuckle and set her down on the bed. I climb in beside her.

"Are you hungry?" I ask. I know I am but I don't know if she's eaten today or not. I hope Beetee made her have lunch. She curls into my arms like she can't stand being even a foot away from me.

"I love you," she says. I smile and roll her onto her back. I position myself above her enough that I'm not quite touching her. She puts her hands on my waist and then rethinks, and moves them to wrap around my neck.

"I love you too. So much," I tell her. "That's part of the reason I went back to District 4 today you know. I wanted to bring you back some things that I thought you might like to have. Like the teddy bear for example." It had rolled out from between us when I moved us. Her eyes lock with mine, and I see my own love for her being reflected back to me in her eyes. If only I thought she was ready for the next step in our relationship. If only my stomach wasn't growling too. I roll us over onto our sides again and pull her to me so that I can kiss her. I missed her today.

"Are you hungry?" I ask again. She never answered me the first time.

"I wish we could bring something here," she responds. I smile. She is hungry, but I don't think she wants to leave my arms.

"I know, they're picky about things like that though," I tell her. I don't want to let her go either, but I sit up and reach to pull her up too. "Come on, they don't keep the café open all night,"


	15. Annie's POV 7

Annie's POV  
Every day continues to run in the same pattern. Every morning I wake up in Finnick's bed. Sometimes he has his arms around me, which means I've had a nightmare, the other times he's either up and waiting for me to wake, or sleeping soundly on the couch beside the bed. I know he means well by not sleeping with me at night, but still I wish he would.

After we're both awake and showered we walk together to imprint his arm with his schedule and to head over to special defense where I'll stay for the day. President Coin still hasn't deemed me stable enough to be able to do a whole lot around 13. That's alright. I like spending my days in the meadow. Nothing here will hurt me and it's peaceful to be able to forget about everything.

Today I bring my teddy bear. It seems and feels slightly ridiculous because I'm twenty one years old and technically too old for a child's toy. But it's not just a child's toy. It's everything I have left of home right now.

"I'll be back to get your for lunch today, I promise," Finnick says as he kisses me goodbye and leaves me with Beetee. At least that means he's staying in District 13. I see Beetee eye the teddy bear but he doesn't say anything as he leads me into the meadow.

~HG~HG~HG~

A week or so passes and nothing changes. Every day blends into the next and there's really nothing that I care about that happens. I'm lying in the grass in the clearing with my eyes closed wishing that it were the beach beneath me instead when I hear Finnick's footsteps. Usually when I hear him I get up and meet him half way, but today, I don't feel like moving. I hear him chuckle upon seeing me and then I feel him nudge my leg with his toe.

"What are you doing?" he asks.

"Pretending I'm at the beach," I smile opening my eyes to look up at him.

"This is grass Annie. Sand and grass don't even feel close to the same,"

"Sit down and join me anyways," I close my eyes again. He sighs but does so anyways. I move and put my head in his lap. "I love you," I tell him. He pokes my nose like I'm a child.

"I love you too." He pauses "You know, this is perfect,"

"I told you it was,"

"That's not what I meant. I meant that there's something I've been wanting to ask you for a while now and I just haven't found the right moment to ask," I turn my head and look up at him. I don't say anything. He opens and closes his mouth a few times debating upon the best way to ask whatever's on his mind. He fidgets with his fingers and a few times I watch his hand go in the direction of his pockets. Finally after he's been silent for far too long to my liking I reach up and put my hand on his cheek.

"Keep it simple Fin," This seems to calm him and he takes in a deep breath. He pulls me up and moves me so I'm sitting beside him. He takes my hands in his.

"I love you, you know that, and you've been my best friend for more years than I care to count. I know you'll be my best friend in the many years to come but I don't want you to be just my best friend anymore. We're safe here in 13, the Capitol won't bother us. Will you marry me Annie?" I honestly don't know what to say. I'm shocked and happy and a million other things. Apparently my silence is too much for him.

"Annie?" he asks. I can't help but to smile now.

"Do you honestly think I'd tell you no?" I lean over and wrap my arms around his neck as I kiss him. We fall backwards in the grass and he rolls us over on our sides as he pulls me closer to him deepening our kiss. When we break, I smile at him and then pull myself closer and rest my head against his neck.

"I love you so much. I wouldn't dream of spending the rest of my life with anyone else." We sit up.

"Don't let me lose you alright?" he asks. I look at him questionably. He pulls a box out of his pocket. "When I went back to District 4, that's when I realized I wanted to marry you. They don't exactly have a jewelry shop here in 13 and I thought it would mean more to you if I got these." He opens the box. Inside it is a pair of rings. I look up at him. "My father took his off when he got sick because he didn't want to lose them. When I went to your house," he pauses watching my reactions, "They didn't move anything in your room. I thought you would appreciate having your mother's rings." There are tears in my eyes.

"What happened to her?" I ask choking on my words.

"Gale went with me. We buried her on the cliff where I know you loved to go when you were upset. Is that okay? Is this okay?" he asks holding up the box again. I nod my head because no words are going to come out over my tears. He takes my hand and watches my face the entire time he puts my mother's ring on me. He closes the box and puts it in his pocket before collecting me in his arms again.

"It's just you and me now and that's all it's going to be forever," he strokes my hair. When I've calmed down he suggests we go talk to Coin and Plutarch about a wedding.

"I'm due in command anyways, just come with me," he smiles. The thought of seeing President Coin makes me nervous. I don't think she's particularly fond of me.

"I'll do all the talking. Don't worry," Finnick says to me before he opens the door. "All you have to do is stand here and look happy." I smile.

"I don't have to try to look happy, I am happy," I lean into his arm. He wraps it around my waist and together we enter. The others are in here too. Katniss, Peeta, Johanna, Haymitch.

"Oh good, you brought Annie," Coin smiles.

"Yes, I did," he smiles down at me. "What's up?" he asks.

"Sit down pretty boy," Haymitch says to Finnick.

"Beetee has a handful of other propos that we'd like for you all go see before he airs them. Johanna and Peeta have put these together. We'd have asked for your input too Annie, but we didn't think you'd be able to handle it," Coin says. I can tell that statement has rubbed Finnick wrong, but he keeps his cool and takes my hand. I'm seated on the end across from Katniss. It's better than being next to Johanna or Peeta.

"These propos are about what it was like to be a Victor held captive in the Capitol and then what it's been like to be here in District 13. There are still a few Districts that we haven't been able to get them to side with us. We're hoping maybe this will work." She turns around in her chair and the lights dim.

"Stay with me. I'm right here," Finnick whispers to me as they start. He holds tightly to my hand and I put my other hand on top of them. Luckily the videos are just of them talking and they don't have any footage of what the inside of the Capitol looks like. Still, it's enough to bring back the memories of what it was like. I squeeze Finnick's hand and keep mine firmly in his while one hand goes up to my ear. I close my eyes and burry my head in his neck using his shoulder as a plug for my other ear.

"It's alright Annie, you're safe. I'm here. I'm real. I'm going to protect you now no matter what it takes," his voice reaches the ear I've covered with my hand. He didn't say it very loud so I'm sure none of the others heard him. I feel his breath tickle my hand as he puts his mouth close enough to my ear. He kisses my hand a time or two. I hold tight to his other hand to let him know that I'm alright. I just don't want to make the memories that are surfacing worse than they have to be. He rests his head against mine and turns his attention back to the videos.

Finally the lights rise and he moves his head off of mine. I move my hand down to my neck and turn so I can hear what's going on.

"What did the rest of you think?" President Coin asks. I watch Katniss's face. She looks as though she could jump up and hug Peeta. She might if he wouldn't try to kill her.

"I'm sorry," she whispers looking at him.

"I think that along with the propos I made against President Snow, that these will show the Capitol citizens exactly what they've done to the Districts," Finnick speaks up. "It'll show that our president is a no good lying bastard and that the only people who survive the Hunger Games are those who die. As Victors we suffer worse than anyone else. He makes it look like we have a happier life when really life is nothing but sad and miserable and we can't do anything we really want to."

"I agree with pretty boy," Haymitch says. He probably just said that because he doesn't feel like thinking for himself.

"Look at all of us. Johanna, you've got nothing but your own life to lose so they don't mess with you anymore right?" she nods her head. "Katniss, you care about your mother, sister, Gale, and Peeta. Those of us who were here watched you slowly lose your mind, especially after you found out Snow was hurting Peeta. If you haven't figured out you love him you're stupid. You got worked up every time Gale left the District to do something that you couldn't accompany him on. You about lost your mind when we took cover from the bombs when you found out that Prim and Gale were still upstairs. You cared about District 12 too. They destroyed that.

Annie, well, look at you now. You can't even watch or think about these things without the memories haunting you." Finnick doesn't release the pressure in my hand as Haymitch talks to me. "Finnick, it was amusing watching you break down like Katniss did before you had Annie with you. That, and Snow's used you and has made you the Capitol's man whore. There's no way you could do what you wanted with all those ladies wanting a piece of you.

Peeta, look at what they did to you. You can't remember that you loved that girl right there with not just your heart but your entire life too." He points to Katniss. "You would do anything for her, but they took those memories and twisted them around and now you hate her.

As for myself, I didn't have anything until the 74th games when two brats took over my life and I've already said what I was going to say for them. It's a sorry life for a bunch of Victors isn't it?" Haymitch says. Maybe he really did agree with Finnick.

"So you think they'll help turn the tides in a few of the District's we have left to convince them to side with us?" President Coin smiles. Everyone seems to be in agreement. "Good, then I'll let Beetee know that he can air them tonight if he wishes. You're all dismissed," Slowly the room empties out. Peeta is escorted out by his guards before Katniss even gets up from the table. I feel bad for them. Finnick keeps me with him until the others have left and it's just us, President Coin, and Plutarch. I wonder where he came from. I didn't see him when we came in. He must have slipped in during the propos.

"Remember why you're here," Finnick whispers to me as we cross the distance to the end of the table where Coin is. She looks up at us expectantly.

"Can I help you Soldier Odair?" she asks.

"Only if you want to," Finnick teases, "Annie and I would like to get married." He announces. Coin looks rather shocked and whatever she was thinking about before is no longer on the forefront of her mind.

"Married? Well I'm sure we can arrange that. It doesn't take more than a handful of paperwork." She says.

"Paperwork and not a wedding?" Plutarch butts in. "This might be another shot at the Capitol. A wedding! President Snow would never expect such a thing and the people here in 13 need something to be excited about. A wedding would be so much fun to have and I'm sure Finnick and Annie would love that. Something close to traditions in District 4 right?" he asks looking at us.

"A wedding is too much of a fuss, it would disrupt the way things are done around here," Coin says waving her hand at Plutarch.

"It would make more than just us happy," I say. It's the first thing I've said to her since I've been in District 13. She's silent as she watches me. I try not to cower away from her glare.

"Alright, Plutarch and I will discuss it. You're dismissed," she says. When we get out into the hallway Finnick picks me up and spins me around as he kisses me.

"We're getting married!"


	16. Finnick's POV 8

Finnick's POV

Every morning I wake up to Annie. Sometimes I wake from the couch, which means Annie has successfully slept through the night, other mornings she's in my arms, which means that there was a nightmare that interrupted our sleep.

This morning is one of the ones where she slept peacefully. Ever since I brought her back the teddy bear, the nightmares haven't been as frequent. We stick to the same routine day in and day out. I'm ready for a change. I yawn as we imprint my arm with the day's schedule, and I walk her down to Special Defense. I think that's doing her some good too. I know she misses District 4, and the meadow here keeps her calm. She and Beetee get along very nicely. He watches out for her for me.

Today, for some reason, she's brought her bear along with her. I don't say anything or question why she's bringing it. I don't question a lot of the things that she does. Half for fear I might set her off, the other half because it's just what makes her Annie. We get to Special Defense and I kiss her goodbye.

"I'll be back to get you for lunch today, I promise," I tell her. I leave her to walk to the meadow with Beetee. I see him notice the bear, but I think by now he knows better than to question her too.

~HG~HG~HG~

I'm still waiting for the right moment to ask her to marry me. Nothing seems right. There just isn't a good enough place to do it, and the moments we get together are mostly at night. I finally get a break in my schedule for an hour, before I have to be in Command. I don't know what Coin wants with me in Command. Usually it's not on my schedule. The doors open to the meadow, and I walk in. When Annie doesn't meet me half way, I'm a little worried, but when I finally see her, she's spread out in the grass. The grass is soft here, so I take my shoes off and pad my way over to her. I chuckle at her and brush my toe against her leg.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"Pretending I'm at the beach," she smiles and opens her eyes to look at me. I learned to stop questioning her, but this absolutely baffles me.

"This is grass Annie. Sand and grass don't even feel close to the same," I tell her. I don't know why she thinks this is a good substitute. It's really not.

"Sit down and join me anyways," she says. I look down at her. She can't be serious. She is. I sigh as I give into what she wants, and I sit down beside her. She moves so that her head is in my lap.

"I love you," she says. I smile and touch my finger to her nose.

"I love you too," I look around and I see that this place has more beauty than I've given it credit for. She's in such a peaceful and relaxed mood too. "You know, this is perfect," I say more to myself than her. I'm afraid of her reaction though.

"I told you it was,"

"That's not what I meant." She's told me before that the meadow is perfect. I'm sure that's what she's referring to. "I meant that there's something I've been wanting to ask you for a while now, and I just haven't found the right moment to ask," she looks up at me with a curious look in her eye, but she knows me well enough that she knows I'm going to tell her without her saying anything. I don't know how to ask her. Suddenly the moment arises, and I didn't think of what I would say. My nervous habit is to fidget with my fingers, and occasionally I reach toward my pocket and think "_maybe I'll just show them to her and ask her that way"_ but that seems silly. She puts her hand on my cheek and our eyes connect.

"Keep it simple Fin," she says. Simple. Right. I take a deep breath and pull her into a sitting position beside me. I don't need her to be laying down for this. I take both of her hands in mine.

"I love you, you know that, and you've been my best friend for more years than I care to count. I know you'll be my best friend in the many years to come, but I don't want you to be just my best friend anymore. We're safe here in 13, the Capitol won't bother us. Will you marry me Annie?" The words come tumbling out of my mouth. I didn't have to think before I told her what my heart was telling me. She looks blankly at me. I think I see a smile play at her lips, but it was only there for a fraction of a second. I watch her reaction carefully, and after a few seconds of silence, I wonder if she's retreated into her own mind again.

"Annie?" I ask nervously. She breaks into a full blown smile.

"Do you honestly think I'd tell you no?" she says, before she leans forward wrapping her arms around my neck to kiss me. I pull her closer to me and we fall back into the grass. I roll us over onto our sides before I deepen the kiss. I know she's everything I'm ever going to want. I keep telling myself that she probably wants me too, but it's for the best if we keep things simple. She's not ready for anything yet. Or if she is then I'm the one who's not ready yet. When we pull away she holds me tightly and rests her head between my neck and my shoulder.

"I love you so much. I wouldn't dream of spending the rest of my life with anyone else." She says. I pull her up so we're sitting again.

"Don't let me lose you alright?" she gives me this confused look again, but I'm afraid she's going to recognize the rings and she'll be lost to her mind again. I don't want that.

"When I went back to District 4 that's when I realized I wanted to marry you. They don't exactly have a jewelry shop here in 13, and I thought it would mean more to you if I got these." I open the box and watch her eyes float down to it. She studies them for a moment, so I go on. "My father took his off when he got sick because he didn't want to lose them. When I went to your house," I pause still watching her, trying not to be too fast. There are tears building up in her eyes, and I really hope they're happy tears. "They didn't move anything in your room after they took you. I thought you would appreciate having your mother's rings." I tell her. She finally looks up at me.

"What happened to her?" she asks, as the tears escape her eyes.

"Gale went with me. We buried her on the cliff where I know you loved to go when you were upset. Is that okay? Is this okay?" I get her attention with the box of rings again, and she nods her head. I carefully take her mother's engagement ring out of the box, and I lock our eyes as I slide the ring onto her left hand. I pocket the box before I pull her into my lap, where she wraps her arms around me to cry.

"It's just you and me now, and that's all it's going to be forever," I say stroking her hair. I let her cry until she's cried no more. "Let's go talk to Coin and Plutarch about a wedding then shall we?" I ask smiling at her as we stand up. "I'm due in Command now anyways, just come with me,"

When we get to Command, I can tell she's nervous. She hasn't spoken to president Coin before, and I suspect it's because the woman scares her.

"I'll do all the talking. Don't worry," I tell her as I reach for the doorknob. "All you have to do is stand here and look happy." She smiles.

"I don't have to try to look happy, I am happy," she leans into my arm and I wrap it around her waist as we enter the room together. I'm surprised to find the other Victors are in here too.  
"Oh good, you brought Annie," President Coin smiles. I don't like that smile, but I ignore it.

"Yes, I did," I smile at Annie. I really want to kiss her, but I refrain from doing so. "What's up?"  
"Sit down pretty boy," Haymitch says from across the room. I roll my eyes. He doesn't use anyone's names.  
"Beetee has a handful of other propos that we'd like for you all to see before he airs them. Johanna and Peeta have put these together. We'd have asked for your input too Annie, but we didn't think you'd be able to handle it," Coin says to Annie. I don't like the way she says that. She says it so sadistically. Like she's the one who said Annie "couldn't handle it," and there was no discussion behind it. I take a seat next to Peeta and across from Johanna. Haymitch and Katniss are on either side of her. I take Annie's hand out of comfort for both of us. Her touch keeps me calm, and I know my touch keeps her calm.  
"These propos are about what it was like to be a Victor held captive in the Capitol, and then what it's been like to be here in District 13. There are still a few Districts that we haven't been able to get them to side with us. We're hoping maybe this will work." She turns around in her chair and the lights dim. I turn to Annie thinking only of how she might react.

"Stay with me. I'm right here," I whisper squeezing her hand. She puts her other hand on top of our joined hands.  
The propos start with Johanna. She talks about what it was like for her to be a Victor of the Hunger Games, and live with the things Snow put her through. She talks about what it was like to be held captive simply because she was a Victor, and what it was like on the inside. Finally she moves onto what it's like to be here in District 13. Peeta's is laid out the same way.

Annie reacted how I expected her to react. Her hand on top of mine finds her ear while her hand in mine struggles to stay put. She buries her head in my neck, and I half suspect that my shoulder is plugging her other ear because her other hand stops fighting her.

"It's alright Annie, you're safe. I'm here. I'm real. I'm going to protect you no matter what it takes," I whisper into her hand covered ear, loud enough for only her to hear. I kiss her hand to emphasize the fact that I'm still with her. She squeezes my hand in response which makes me wonder if she really did tune out, or if she's just doing this because she knows it would be too much if she actually tried to listen and watch. I kiss her hand again and then rest my head against hers for the remainder of the propos.

When the lights come back on I move my head away from hers. She turns her face to the table and her hand creeps down to her neck. My thoughts were right. She didn't really tune all the way out.  
"What did the rest of you think?" Coin asks. No one says anything until Katniss looks directly at Peeta and says,

"I'm sorry," I know that all she wants is for her and Peeta to look like Annie and me right now, but this is as close as she's been able to get to him because he'll kill her otherwise. I look around before I speak up.  
"I think that along with the propos I made against President Snow, that these will show the Capitol citizens exactly what they've done to the Districts. It'll show that our president is a no good lying bastard, and that the only people who survive the Hunger Games are those who die. As Victors we suffer worse than anyone else. He makes it look like we have a happy life, when really life is nothing but sad and miserable and we can't do anything we really want to."

"I agree with pretty boy," Haymitch says. He looks thoughtful for a moment before he looks at Johanna and then goes on to say something else.  
"Look at all of us. Johanna, you've got nothing but your own life to lose so they don't mess with you anymore right?" she nods her head. "Katniss, you care about your mother, sister, Gale, and Peeta. Those of us who were here, watched you slowly lose your mind. Especially after you found out Snow was hurting Peeta. If you haven't figured out you love him, you're stupid. You got worked up every time Gale left the District to do something that you couldn't accompany him on. You about lost your mind when we took cover from the bombs when you found out that Prim and Gale were still upstairs. You cared about District 12 too. They destroyed that.

"Annie, well, look at you now. You can't even watch or think about these things without the memories haunting you." I grip her hand a little tighter. Not very many of these people have said a whole lot to her before. "Finnick, it was amusing watching you break down like Katniss did before you had Annie with you. That, and Snow's used you and has made you the Capitol's man whore. There's no way you could do what you wanted with all those ladies wanting a piece of you." I cringe and I feel Annie shudder at the thought of what the Capitol was doing to me before. That's over now. I'm going to marry this girl beside me, and that's all that will ever matter.

"Peeta, look at what they did to you. You can't remember that you loved that girl right there with not just your heart, but your entire life too." He points to Katniss. "You would do anything for her, but they took those memories, and twisted them around, and now you hate her.

"As for myself, I didn't have anything until the 74th Games when two brats took over my life, and I've already said what I was going to say for them. It's a sorry life for a bunch of Victors isn't it?" Haymitch says looking around at all of us. He's right. It is a sorry life. If we lose this war, I don't even want to think about what will happen to us. Maybe I'd get my hands on some sort of poison, and Annie and I can just go ahead and die together, before the Capitol will separate us and kill us violently. At least that's an easier thought to swallow.  
"So you think they'll help turn the tides in a few of the District's we have left to convince to side with us?" President Coin looks around at all of us as we all nod our heads, or say small "yes" or "yeah"

"Good, then I'll let Beetee know that he can air them tonight if he wishes. You all are dismissed," The first person to leave the room is Peeta; escorted by his guards. Annie watches as the others leave the room. She and I haven't moved yet. When the room is clear of all but us, and Coin and Plutarch, I stand and bring Annie with me.

"Remember why you're here," I remind her as we cross over to Coin's chair. The older woman looks up at us.

"Can I help you Soldier Odair?" she asks without a bit of emotion on her face. Up close she looks worn and tired. I absentmindedly wonder just how old she is.  
"Only if you want to," I joke and smile brightly. I wrap my arm around Annie's waist and pull her closer. "Annie and I would like to get married." Shock crosses her face. She's silent for a moment as she processes my words.

"Married? Well, I'm sure we can arrange that. It doesn't take more than a handful of paperwork," she said. I feel Annie's spirits have dropped a little, but she holds herself together. I'm probably the only one who noticed.

"Paperwork and not a wedding?" Plutarch interrupts. "This might be another shot at the Capitol. A wedding! President Snow would never expect such a thing, and the people here in 13 need something to be excited about. A wedding would be so much fun to have, and I'm sure Finnick and Annie would love that. Something close to traditions in District 4 right?" he looks at us, and I feel the excitement in Annie again as we nod our heads. I smile down at her.  
"A wedding is too much of a fuss, it would disrupt the way things are done around here," Coin waves her hand at Plutarch.

"It would make more than just us happy," Annie says from the circle of my arm. Even I can't help but to show shock at her words. She's always been afraid of the President and she hasn't said anything at all to her ever. She and Coin glare at one another for a moment, before she finally speaks up again.  
"Alright, Plutarch and I will discuss it. You're dismissed," she says and then turns her head back to the papers in front of her. Calmly, hand in hand, we walk out the door. As soon as I swing it shut behind me, I pick Annie up and spin her around and kiss her.

"We're getting married!" I say. It'll just be me and her for the rest of our lives.


	17. Annie's POV 8

Annie's POV

I don't know what made me speak up to President Coin, but I'm glad that I did. She and Plutarch had many arguments about the wedding idea. More than once, she tried to convince us that it would be so much simpler to just sign a handful of papers and be done. Finally after they involved a few more people I don't know, they decided to let us have a wedding and tape it to use to show President Snow that while there might be war and hardships, the rebel forces are still fighting strong.

There's a knock on Finnick's compartment door. I'd had a rough night full of nightmare after nightmare and Finnick and I are still cuddled together in his bed. I protest as he detangles me from him and gets up to answer the door.

"She had a rough night. Sure you want to do this today?" I hear him ask. I get up and cross to the bedroom door opening it to see who it is. Katniss is standing in the living room. She doesn't seem to be bothered by the fact Finnick isn't wearing anything more than the shorts he sleeps in. Finnick turns when he hears me open the door.

"Hey," he smiles at me. He reaches his arm out to me as a motion for me to come to him. I'm not wearing anything more than a nightgown, but it's only Katniss. When I get to him, he pulls me into the circle of his arms.

"Katniss has offered to take you to the Victors Village in District 12 because her stylist and prep team left her some dresses in her closet at home. Plutarch wants us at least, to dress up for our own wedding," he smiles at saying "our wedding" and then kisses the tip of my nose. "Are you going to be alright going with her and her prep team without me?" he asks. I don't know how I'm going to react until it happens. He knows that. I look at Katniss. She's only trying to make the wedding more special. She doesn't seem like a bad person or someone who I should be afraid of. I look back at Finnick.

"I'll try. You know I can't promise a definite answer," I tell him.

"When are you guys going?" he asks pulling me to him again.

"After breakfast. Coin wants us back by lunch but Plutarch is going. He doesn't always follow her rules," Katniss says.

"Alright, we'll meet you after breakfast then." Finnick says. She nods her head and let's herself out of the compartment.

"Are you alright?" he asks me again. I wrap my arms around him tighter and rest my head against his chest.

"I'm gonna try," I tell him. That's all I can do.

"I mean, her prep team is people from the Capitol. I know you don't handle them very well," he says.

"It's not all Capitol people Fin, just the ones who work closer to Snow. I was okay with Kelly, Carter, and my own prep team." I tell him. "Katniss is going. Even though she spent a lot of time with you after debating if she should kill you, you trust her, and that's enough for me." we stand there for a moment longer neither of us really wanting to let the other go.

"I love you," he murmurs.

"I love you too," much too soon we have to get dressed and ready for our days.

~HG~HG~HG~

"Hey Annie, Finnick," Katniss greets us again after breakfast. "Annie, I want you to meet my prep team. They're entirely harmless, they won't hurt you." Octavia, Flulvia, and Venia stand quietly behind Katniss each of them looking at something different on the ground. As Katniss tells me who they are they look up and smile before turning their eyes and heads down again.

"Good, you're all here," commander Boggs comes up behind Finnick and me. "You're not going are you Finnick?" he asks.

"No, I've just come to see them off." the hand he has resting on my hip pulls me a little closer to him.

"Right, the groom isn't allowed to see the dress until the wedding day," Commander Boggs smiles. I focus on Katniss. She was going to marry Peeta. I wonder if it was more for the cameras or if she really does love him. Since I've gotten to know her, I'd say if she was still marrying him it would be for both reasons.

"Alright well, if you're all ready, let's load up and head out," Boggs says.

Finnick spins me around so I'm facing him and he can wrap both arms around me. He rests his forehead against mine.

"I'll be waiting for you when you get back. It doesn't matter to me what you wear because when the night is over with, you'll be my best friend and my wife and nothing except death will change that," he smiles and then kisses me.

"I love you," I say before I hug him one final time and board the hovercraft.

On the hovercraft, I sit beside Commander Boggs and across from Katniss. We make small talk in the forty-five minute ride to District 12.

"This has to be quite the adjustment for you, coming from District 4," Katniss says to me. "I had trouble getting used to it too, and I'm only from District 12."

"I miss the sound, feel, and smell of the ocean as well as the beaches and the open air," I say. I close my eyes and try to imagine the sunshine. Maybe it will be just as warm in District 12.

"Are we going to be safe where we're going?" I ask suddenly. My thoughts had wandered to how Finnick went to District 4 not that long ago and it wasn't safe for him.  
"Do you know what the ground above District 13 looks like?" Katniss asks. I nod my head. There's nothing there but craters and broken rubble. "That's what District 12 looks like. There's nothing there, because the Capitol destroyed it as part of my punishment for the rebellion with the 75th Games as well as what I did in the 74th," She's careful not to say "Hunger Games" because she doesn't want to set me off on one of my episodes. I'm thankful for that.

"I'm sorry," I tell her. I couldn't imagine losing my home, my friends, my family, all because I didn't want to kill myself or my District partner.

Of course, I've lost all of that already. My home might still be in one piece in District 4, but I'm not there to live in it. My friends, I lost most of those after I came home from my own Games. Not very many of them wanted to associate with the "Mad Girl." My family is dead. Mother never told me how my father died, but I'd like to think he died like she did. Defending me. I feel the tears come to my eyes. I didn't realize how much I miss them. I look down at the ring on my left hand. My parents are still with me. They will still live on in my heart. Katniss places her hand on my knee.

"I didn't mean to upset you," she says.

"It's okay," I wipe my eyes. "You're right, it is hard adjusting to District 13." After that, no more words are passed around until we get there.

District 12's Victors Village is just like District 4's except its District 12. Katniss leads us all into the house that must have been hers.

"Commander, will you stay down here and keep watch?" she asks. He nods his head. There really isn't much difference in the way the houses are made. We get to one of the rooms that I'm going to assume is Katniss's, and she opens the closet. It's packed full of dresses. Her prep team falls in the floor at the sight of them and begins to sob. This startles me for a moment before one of them explains that they've not seen anything so nice in a while. I understand that this is the kind of thing they're used to in the Capitol. They must miss this as much as I miss District 4.

"It's alright guys," Katniss says comfortingly. "We need to pick one of these outfits out and see how it fits Annie." She looks at me and her eyes run from my head to my toes. "She's about the same size as I am, maybe a little smaller, something in here will have to fit. Annie, would you care to pick one out? It's your wedding after all," Slowly I make my way to the closet and I run my hands on all of the fabric. Venia touches my arm. She points to a sea green dress and then looks at me and smiles.

"You're from District 4. Plutarch told us to focus as much on that as we could didn't he?" she looks around at the others. She pulls the green dress out of the closet. "Try it on. Please?" she adds as an afterthought. I carefully take the dress in my hands. It's soft.

"We'll step out, just open the door when you're ready," Katniss says extending her hand to Octavia who's still in the floor. The four of them leave me alone in Katniss's room. All of these clothes are better than the grey suits we're given to wear in 13.

The dress goes down just past my knees. It's ruffled in the middle and the sleeves extend just above my elbows. The neckline is a little higher than I'm used to, being from District 4 it's usually so hot there that we don't normally wear more than is necessary to cover ourselves. The dress doesn't cling to my figure, but it doesn't hang from it either. I look at myself in the mirror and can't help but to smile. Finnick is going to love this. There's a soft knock at the door.

"Are you alright Annie? It's been almost half an hour," Katniss's head pokes in the room. She sees me examining myself in the mirror and her smile matches mine. "You like it don't you?" she asks. "Can I let the others in?" I nod my head to both questions. The prep team smiles. They'll have fun making me beautiful for my wedding.

~HG~HG~HG~

I haven't been able to stop smiling since we all decided that was the dress that I would wear. When we arrived back in District 13 Finnick and Plutarch greeted us. Of course I went directly into Finnick's arms.

"They've almost got everything ready for the wedding," he says "Just another week,"

"A week? " I ask surprised. I was thinking it would take longer to put it together than it has.

"There are just a few more things they've got to touch up and put together. Is a week okay with you?" he asks suddenly.

"It's perfectly fine," I smile to reassure him. "I just wasn't expecting it so soon is all, but I don't mind it at all," I wrap my arms around his neck and he pulls me closer to him. He kisses the tip of my nose.

"I take it that you found the perfect dress then?" he asks "You haven't stopped smiling,"

"It's more than perfect," I say closing the distance between our lips. He's been eating more of his sugar cubes today because I can taste them. He picks me up and I lock my legs around his waist. I'm content to just let him hold me.

"I love you," he says as he starts walking toward the elevators.

"I love you too," I rest my head on his shoulder, close my eyes, and don't worry a whole lot about where he's taking me. It doesn't matter as long as we're together.

When he stops again, I lean back and look at where we are.

"This is my compartment," I tell him as he carries me through the doorway. I don't spend too much time in here. In fact I don't think I've been in here in over a week. All of the things Finnick brought me from District 4 are still in the bag he brought it in. I looked through it but didn't want to put anything out.

"I know where we are Annie," he chuckles. He tries to set me down on the bed but I don't let go so he falls on top of me. We look at each other and burst out laughing at ourselves. He pulls me up as he readjusts us in the bed.

"Why are we in here?" I ask.

"I…" he hesitates. "I pissed Peeta off. He knows where my compartment is but he doesn't know where yours is. He's under the impression that we live together already. Of course he's almost right. We do almost live together, and in a week we will permanently live together," he smiles at me.

"Next week," suddenly the thought of what happens after the wedding is enough to make me nervous, the blush creeps up my cheeks and sets them on fire, and for once in my life I find myself uncomfortable wrapped up in Finnick's arms. He's always been good at reading my emotions and he untangles himself from me a little bit.

"Annie," he starts. "I promise you, if you don't want to, we don't have to. I love you for who you are not based on anything we've done or haven't done. Nothing is going to change that." He reaches up and wipes the tear from my eye. I've started crying and I don't really know why. He gets up from the bed entirely and moves so he can wrap the blankets around me.

"Don't leave," I choke.

"I'm not leaving Annie, I just don't want you to be uncomfortable and you are." He lies down beside me but I'm under the blankets and he's on top of them.

"I'm sorry," I say through my tears.

"It's okay, I understand, it's a new concept to you, but it's going to be okay. It's all up to what you want and what makes you happy. I'm happy with the idea that you're going to be my wife. Finally, because I love you so much and you are all that my life will ever need. It's okay. I'm right here, try to sleep," he says wrapping his arms around me again. Eventually my sobs quiet down to hiccups but I still can't sleep.

"Finnick?" I whisper through the darkness.

"Hm?" he tucks a strand of hair behind my ear and I'm sure he's watching my face.

"I'm sorry," I tell him again.

"It's okay Annie. I understand. It'll be alright though. Don't worry about it,"

"I love you," I manage to get him to let me close enough to rest my head in his neck and he wraps his arms around me again.

"I love you too. It's going to be okay I promise,"

~HG~HG~HG~

On the morning of the wedding I wake to the empty bed in my compartment. I sit up confused for a moment because when I fell asleep it had been in Finnick's bed in his compartment. There's a note on the back of my door.

_Annie, _

_Guess what! We're getting married today! I love you so much and words can't even begin to express how excited I am that for the rest of our lives it'll just be you and me, and nothing and no one will come between us. It was probably around 5 or 6 this morning when I brought you from my room to yours. You were sleeping so peacefully for once so I knew you'd be alright. Little Prim Everdeen and Katniss's prep team are going to help you get ready today. They'll probably be waiting in your living room for you to wake up. I told them to let you sleep. I hope they do. I figured you'd be alright with Prim. She seems to adore you and she's a really good kid. I think you've met her before. I'll see you tonight, _

_All my love, Finnick_

I smile upon reading the note and decide it might be better for me to get dressed before I go see if there are people in my living room.

They're all waiting for me. Prim is sitting in the floor facing the prep team trying to make them laugh or something.  
"Good morning Annie!" she says cheerfully when she sees me. "Did you sleep alright? Finnick told us we couldn't wake you up."

"Thank you," I say. She smiles at me.  
"The wedding is at 8pm sharp. You have to be fully ready by 7:30 tonight. We've gotten permission for us to eat lunch in command that way you and Finnick won't see each other at lunch. There's a full day of things planned for you" Venia says.

"I won't let them over load you or scare you," Prim whispers taking my arm. I smile down at her.

"First things first, you need to shower. Don't dry your hair, we'll do that for you. Go on, get ready,"

~HG~HG~HG~

After my hair and makeup and nails have been done, finally it's time to put on the dress.

"We wanted to start you at beauty base zero like we do with Katniss but Finnick made us promise not to. He doesn't really want you to look like we've remade you." I'm told. I blush a little at this. They slip the dress over my head in a fashion that doesn't mess up the curly ringlets of hair that hang from my head. I haven't been allowed to look at myself yet, but Prim keeps reassuring me that I look beautiful and I probably won't recognize myself when they do allow me to a mirror.

My nails have been filed down and painted a pale green with touches of blue sparkles to represent the ocean waves of District 4. I'm given a pearl necklace to wear. When it touches my skin I gasp.

"These are real District 4 pearls," I say. Octavia nods her head.

"We thought you might like them," she mumbles. Usually Venia does all the talking.

"I love them," I say. A smile lights Octavia's face.

They continue to touch up things here and there and at 7:30 I'm finally allowed to see myself. I gasp.

Prim was right. The woman looking back at me is me, but she's not. I see my face that has been touched up with a little blush to the cheeks, blue and green eye shadow that accents the dress and my nails. My hair is curlier than I thought. It's pinned up in a very intricate fashion and I know I'll need help freeing my head from the pins later. The dress it's self is stunning. It fits my figure very nicely. The prep team has added a blue sash to it and done up the hem of the dress and the sleeves with blue lace.

"Finnick isn't going to know what hit him," the prep team stands behind me, and Prim stands to my right.

"Thank you, all of you," I turn to look at them all. Tears glisten my eyes.

"Good thing your makeup is waterproof." Venia smiles.

"Wedding traditions in District 10 are a lot like those in 4 so the guy from 10 is going to be leading the wedding, I'm going to walk in front of you, you'll have to put a few seconds worth of distance between us before you follow and Finnick will be there at the end of the isle," Prim smiles at me.

"I'm going to change, I'll be back," she picks up a bag and hurries into my room. When she comes out again she's wearing a beige colored dress that has been altered and ruffled and sparkled to remind me of the sand at the beach. Her dress has been given a yellow sash and the hems are done in yellow lace like the blue in mine. She sits up in the chair and her nails are painted yellow and her eye shadow and makeup are also done to reflect the beach and the sunshine.

Just before the doors to the banquet hall are opened, Prim presents me with blue and green daisies for my bouquet. Finnick must have tipped them off on my favorite flower. I smile as I think of him. It's times like this when he remembers the little things that I feel like I don't deserve him, but I'm glad that he loves me. Prim's daisies are a light tan, yellow, and white.

"Remember, count to five and then follow my footsteps. Watch my feet, don't look up at Finnick until you get to him that way you keep walking and aren't too stunned to move," she gives me the brightest smile. I almost want to feel bad for her. She's not any older than fourteen and she's grown up way too fast. Faster than any child ever should. I touch her arm lightly. Startled she turns back around to face me.  
"Thank you," I whisper and then step forward to hug her. She willingly hugs me back and chuckles at me.

"You're welcome. You look beautiful." She says and then she lets me go and we move to take our places. The doors are finally open and I look around at the inside. It's beautiful.

"I'm going Annie," Prim's voice says and I train my eyes on her feet because she was right. If my eyes find Finnick before I get to him all of my thoughts will leave my body. Slowly I count to five and then I find myself moving forward. I see her step off to one side and I know that has to be my cue to look up. My feet keep me moving forward as my eyes find Finnick's. He reaches his hand out to me and it's the only thing that brings me back to reality. I'll focus on how he looks later.

"Welcome guests, today we are here to celebrate the union of Annie Cresta and Finnick Odair." The guy from District 10 begins our ceremony. There is nothing but a smile on Finnick's face and just looking at his smile makes me smile too. He squeezes my hands and I see him mouth the word "Forever" I don't focus on what is being said until we get to the traditions of District 4.

We're covered with a grass woven net. I take one of my hands from Finnick and reach out to touch it. It could only have been made from someone in District 4. I never really thought much about the other people who are here in District 13. I didn't know that there was anyone from District 4 here. There's a bowl of water that the guy from District 10 puts under the net. Another tradition from 4, the touching of each other's lips with salt water. Finnick goes first. He dips the tips of his fingers in the water and then gently touches my mouth. I taste the salt and instantly miss District 4 again. He squeezes my hand harder to remind me that I'm alright because I have him and when this is over we'll be bonded by marriage.

When it's my turn, I dip my fingers in the water. It's not got the feel of the ocean but it's close enough. I touch his lips and he kisses my fingers. The smile comes back to my lips. The District 10 guy says a few more things before the net is lifted from us and Finnick is told he can kiss his bride. He takes my face in both of his hands and our lips meet. His lips are sweet and salty. I wrap my arms around his neck and embrace the kiss. It's shorter than I want it to be but I understand we have an audience.

"I love you Mrs. Odair," he says to me before he pulls entirely away. He takes my hand, and together we're presented as Mr. and Mrs. Odair. We walk down the aisle together until we reach the back of the room and turn to watch the festivities kick off.

The people from District 12 can dance like none of the rest of us have ever seen before. We don't really dance in District 4. At least not like they do. They play music trying to accommodate for all the Districts here in attendance. 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 12, and 13 are where most of the people here come from.

They play music from our District and insist that Finnick and I dance. He takes me out on the dance floor and spins me around. There are a few slow songs where he's able to hold me close as we spin around in circles together. There's one song that lasts so long that I rest my head on his shoulder and close my eyes. He spins us around and I'm content and happy to be in his arms and I almost fall asleep.

"You can't fall asleep on me yet love," he chuckles when I jump because they've changed to a loud fast song.

"Sorry," I mumble. He kisses the tip of my nose. Suddenly the crowd parts and everyone gasps. His arms reflexively tighten around me until we realize that it's only a wedding cake. It is the most beautifully designed cake I have ever seen. No one in 4 was this good of a cake decorator, but this cake looks almost exactly like the beaches in District 4.

Finnick tucks me under his side as he's given a knife to cut it with.

"I know it's not a tradition in District 4 like it is in District 10, but in 10, the groom cuts the first pieces of the cake and the bride and groom feed each other the first piece. It's a fun tradition. If you want to anyways," the guy from District 10 tells us. Finnick looks at it for a moment and then looks down at me.

"What do you think?" he asks.

"It's so beautiful," is all I can manage.

"Ready to have some more fun?" he asks mischievously. I'm too busy looking at him to notice he's taken his other hand and swiped a glob of frosting. He takes me totally by surprise as he smears it on my face. The people around us gasp and then chuckle at this. I'm too stunned to react. I reach up toward my face and touch the frosting. He laughs at my expression before pulling me close and kissing me again. He licks away the frosting around my lips but when he tries to lick it off my face that's when I protest. I'm given napkins and I try to get it off myself but it only makes Finnick laugh a little harder and smile a little bigger before he takes the napkins from me and cleans my face.

"I'll find a way to get you back for this," I tell him. I have half a mind to get him back when I get to feed him the cake but for now, I don't.

When the guests begin to trickle down, Plutarch approaches us. He hands Finnick a slip of paper and a key.

"You'll be given two weeks to clear your compartments out and turn in the keys. The paper contains your new compartment number and that obviously is your key. Congratulations you two. You deserve happiness," he says. Finnick thanks him and he moves on happy that the wedding was a success. Finnick puts my face between his hands and I'm forced to look at him.

"The rest of the night is up to you," he says "we can go to your room, my room, or we can go explore our new home," he smiles as he says "our home" I know what he means though. Our conversation from last week.

"I want to. I'm just scared" I tell him.

"Scared? Annie, this is me, you ought to know I will never hurt you and there is nothing to be afraid of. When I was younger, before I had to mentor you, before I fell in love with you, I liked it. I liked every minute of what they did to me. I never loved them like I love you though. It's a wonderful thing, but I wish I could have waited. I wish that I could experience it for the first time with you. I won't force anything on you. You tell me what you want to do. As long as you're happy, I'm happy." he's wiping the tears from my eyes again.

"You are so good to me Fin," I tell him.

"We've been through a lot, you've been through a lot, and I love you," he shrugs his shoulders like it isn't a big deal to him.

"I can't decide if we should go to our home or to your compartment." I tell him once the tears have stopped. He's holding me close and we're spinning around to the soft music again. There are only about twenty to thirty guests left.

"Let's go to my place then. I think you'll be more comfortable in a place that's familiar to you." he takes my hand and leads me out of the banquet hall. By the time we get to his compartment my nerves have me shaking. He's unlocked and opened the door but he stands in front of it.

"We don't have to Annie. If you're that scared of it, it's okay if we don't. All that matters is that you are my wife. Now and for forever. I love you and nothing will ever change that."

"I'm scared and nervous," I manage to say. "I want to," he gives me his "are you really sure," look before he picks me up.

"I'll be as gentle as possible and I'll make this easy for you. If it's too much, just tell me or if I hurt you, or you change your mind,"

"You should kiss me before I do change my mind," my whole body is numb but it keeps telling me that this is what I want. I wanted this years ago and my body won't like me very much if I pass this up.

This is how it's supposed to be. His hands to go my hair first and he easily pulls all the pins from it in a matter of minutes. Finnick's kisses tell me that as much as he was willing to pass this up just because I'm scared, he's glad that I decided I want this. He wants it too. Finally when all of our clothes have been discarded and we're under the blankets together, we become one. He is mine and I am his and like he's said before, nothing is going to come between us.

* * *

**Authors Note: **So this chapter is a little longer than my average chapter but i really didnt want to split it up since it all kinda goes together.  
There are a handful of places in this that i really love. This is probably, personally, my favorite chapter. I hope you enjoyed it as much as i did. Finnick's POV will follow as soon as i get it written. :)  
Also, i know i made a note where i switched who's POV came first, but now its really bugging me that i went from Finnick/Annie alternating to Annie/Finnick alternating. It might bug some of you too, so im sorry if it is.  
Tell me what you think! :)


	18. Finnick's POV 9 Part One

**Authors Note:** I want to get this over with first so that there is no interruption between flow of this chapter and the next one.  
Originally, i wasnt planning on doing part one and part two for Finnick's POV on anything. However, upon finishing the chapter, my word count was over 7000 words and thats a little over twice as long as my average chapter. So this chapter is everything from before the wedding leading up to it and then the next chapter is entirely Finnick's POV on the wedding.

For this chapter specifically:  
I have to thank Hillary_Izzy_Blair because without her, the middle portion of this chapter would not exist. She has been so good to me for the time that i've known her and she's an excellent writer. It helps that she adores Peeta, because i could not write him as well as she does. She has become one of the handful of best friends i will ever have and im so thankful for her. So, this chapter's for you PeetaChip. Thanks for helping me. :)

* * *

Finnick's POV  
I'm awoken in the middle of the night by Annie's screams. With as often as she wakes up screaming from a nightmare one would think that I wouldn't have a heart attack every time I hear her screams. I move off my couch and crawl into the bed beside her. She's tossing and turning and flailing her arms. I have to pin her down before she realizes it was only a nightmare. I cuddle with her until she falls back asleep and eventually I do too.

On a normal night like this, it's the only time that we're awoken. But tonight is one of her worse nights. She's having trouble sleeping and I'm woken by a fist to the face more than once.

When morning comes someone is knocking rather loudly on my compartment door. My movement wakes Annie.

"Just ignore it," she says trying to hold me in the bed. I kiss her cheek and detangle myself. I open the door only to find Katniss on the other side of it.

"We're going to District 12 today to let Annie try on some dresses of mine for your wedding," she says.

"She had a rough night. Sure you want to do this today?" I ask. After nights like this I usually have to stay with her for a while in the meadow in special defense before she lets me leave her.

"It's the only day Coin is going to let us out," Katniss says. Annie opens the bedroom door and pokes her head out it. I hold out my arm and motion for her to come to me. She does. When she's trapped in my arms I tell her what's going on.

"Katniss has offered to take you to the Victors Village in District 12 because her stylist and prep team left her some dresses in her closet at home. Plutarch wants at least us to dress up for our own wedding," I smile at her and then kiss her nose. "Are you going to be alright going with her and her prep team without me?" I ask. Annie looks back and forth between Katniss and I deciding if she trusts Katniss enough.

"I'll try. You know I can't promise a definite answer," she says finally. I hug her again.

"When are you guys going?" I ask.

"After breakfast. Coin wants us back by dinner but Plutarch is going. He doesn't always follow her rules," Katniss says. I see her roll her eyes. She's not any more of a fan of Plutarch as I am.

"Alright, we'll meet you after breakfast then." I say. She nods her head and then turns and leaves. When she's gone I turn my attention to Annie again.

"Are you alright?" I ask. She holds me tighter and rests her head against my chest.

"I'm gonna try," she says.

"I mean, her prep team is people from the Capitol. I know you don't handle them very well."

"It's not all Capitol people Fin, just the ones who work closer to Snow. I was okay with Kelly, Carter, and my own prep team. Katniss is going. Even though she spent a lot of time with you after debating if she should kill you, you trust her and that's enough for me," she says. Neither of us move, I think we're both pretty comfortable wrapped in each other's arms.

"I love you," I whisper.

"I love you too," she responds. Eventually we have to let go and get dressed and ready to start our days.

~HG~HG~HG~

After breakfast we walk to where we'll meet the others so that Annie can be on her way to District 12 for the day.

"Hey Annie, Finnick," Katniss says. "Annie, I want you to meet my prep team. They're entirely harmless, they won't hurt you" She says each of their names and the look up, wave and smile at Annie before they look back at their feet. They too are having trouble adjusting to District 13.

"Good, you're all here," Commander Boggs comes up behind us. "You're not going are you Finnick?" he asks.

"No, I've just come to see them off," I tell him. Annie is standing to my left and I have one arm wrapped around her and my hand is on her waist. As Commander Boggs passes I pull her a little closer to me.

"Right, the groom isn't allowed to see the dress until the wedding day," he smiles. "Alright well, if you're all ready let's load up and head out," he says. Katniss and her prep team turn to get on the hovercraft but I spin Annie around in my arms so she's facing me.

"I'll be waiting for you when you get back. It doesn't matter to me what you wear because when the night is over with, you'll be my best friend and my wife and nothing except death will change that," I lean forward and kiss her.

"I love you," she says and then hugs me one more time before she too boards the hovercraft. I stand back and watch them leave. I'm due in command when I'm done here. I'm going to spend the day with Haymitch and Peeta trying on outfits of my own for this wedding.

~HG~HG~HG~

I meet Haymitch in command and he takes me down to one of the compartments in the lower levels that I've never been to before. Apparently there are more guards down here for Peeta. We're ushered into the room where Peeta is, by guards who opened the door when we knocked.

"Is he on 24/7 surveillance or something?" I ask Haymitch. He nods his head.

"It's so he doesn't try sneaking off to find Katniss," Haymitch responds.

"She's the one who's the mutt," Peeta says coming out of his room.

"Don't argue," Haymitch mutters to me. I know that Peeta's the mutt now, not Katniss.

"They brought back some stuff from District 12. I'm sure there will be something in there that you might like," he says.

"Care to help me pick something out then?" I ask. Peeta stares back at me for a moment before

answering. He stands up straighter and crosses his arms over his chest like he's in defense mode or something.  
"I guess I have to care. There's nothing else to do." He walks over to the closet and starts looking through the suits.

"You don't have to care if you don't want to," I respond. I stand beside him as I flip through some of the suits. I oddly wonder what color Annie's going to wear. It wouldn't look very good if she wore one color and I picked something that clashed. I mentally beat myself up for not thinking about it earlier.

"Apparently I do. If I don't, I get strapped to a bed in that hospital room." He shrugs as he pulls a suit from the closet. Its powder blue. I think I remember it from the Victory tour he did in District 4.

I shrug my shoulders too as I take the suit from him. His shoulders are broader than mine so it'll need some work, but I'm sure there is someone here in 13 who can alter it for me.

"Between you and me, you don't have to care. I'm sure you aren't excited about it, I'm the one getting married not you," I continue to comb through the suits and find that the blue one I have slung over my arm is the one that I like the best. "You'll get better soon enough," I tell him clasping my hand on his shoulder.

I turn my attention to the suit examining it from all angles and out of my peripheral vision I see him frown as he tries to figure something out.  
"Katniss," he whispers. I flinch when I hear him. Something tells me I should keep my mouth shut about her, but I don't.

"I'm sorry all this happened to you. You could have been just as happy with her as I am with Annie. Katniss isn't a monster though. If it weren't for her I can't guarantee that I'd be sane right now. I remember that this was supposed to be your wedding, not mine. You really loved her you know. I fully believe that during the 74th Hunger Games, it was an act on her part. But when we were all in the 75th Games together, she loves you Peeta. It's killing her on the inside that your hands only want to take her life from her instead of comfort her." I tell him. I watch his face contort in a mixture of emotions.

"You probably shouldn't have said that pretty boy, try on the suit," Haymitch says moving between Peeta and me. I'm still watching emotions fly across Peeta's face and I wish I knew what he was thinking. I wish I knew how to make him feel better but I think all I've done is made him upset.

"She _is_ a monster. She's the one that made you go insane in the first place!" he says, his teeth clenched. Haymitch keeps his stance between us. Peeta is angry. His hands ball up into fists. "She never wanted to marry me! And I don't want to marry her now, either!'

"No, you're wrong. The capitol had Annie. That's why I went insane. Katniss helped me overcome it." I make my way to the door of the bathroom where I can try on the suit and not be attacked while doing so. "But yet, you're right. She didn't want to marry you, but she would be very hurt if she heard you say that you don't want to marry her anymore." I swiftly make my way into the bathroom and lock the door. Before I got the door closed, I saw Peeta lunge for it. I hear his body hit the door and I feel sorrow for the young teenager. He starts screaming at me.

"Who the hell do you think you are to say how Katniss would feel?! She's lying to you! She's been lying to all of us since the beginning - let go of me!" He's being restrained. I never meant for this to happen. I shake my head as I strip off my District 13 uniform. I remind myself that it's all in his head and I want to cry for him. He could have been happy with her like I am and I will be happy with Annie. He doesn't know what he's talking about. I wonder how Katniss is taking this. She's strong I know. I probably won't tell her anything because she's already reached her breaking point once. She doesn't want to go back into the hospital any more than Peeta or I do.

I sigh as I think about Annie again. I hope she's alright with Katniss. The comment she made this morning about how I trust Katniss and that's enough for her makes me happy and at the same time it makes me a little worried.

When I'm done trying on the suit I find I was right. It is way too big in the shoulders. The waist line of the pants could be taken in too, but it looks good on me. While my eyes are mostly a sea foam green, there are still specks of blue hidden within them and the suit brings them out nicely. It's not a deep ocean blue suit, but it's the color of the shallow water on the beach. The under shirt and the tie remind me of the sand on the beach. Hopefully it will work nicely with anything that Annie wears. I was told that Prim's going to be our maid of honor. I hope Annie's alright with that too. I personally don't care. I wonder what color flower they'll stuff in my breast pocket. I made sure to mention that Annie's favorite flowers are daisies.

Sooner than I'd like I reenter the room where I find Peeta is tied to a chair. Haymitch has a few new scratches on his face but other words looks fine. Peeta looks deranged and his nose is bloody and swollen.

"So gents, what do you think?" I stand in the sexiest pose I can muster and smile big and brightly at Peeta. I half do this to mock him. It doesn't help his state of mind. I should be scared of him. He probably would kill me if it weren't for those ropes around his arms, legs, and torso. I watch as the rope quickly rubs his skin raw and blood trickles down his wrists into his hands.

"It'll have to be taken in some of course. The shoulders are way too big and the pants are a little loose too. Think it'll match whatever Annie picks out?" I wonder aloud.

I ignore Peeta's screams, I'm afraid he's going to knock the chair over but I'm glad that his feet are tied as well. At least he won't be able to stand and use it as a weapon against us.

"It looks good Finnick." Haymitch says, ignoring Peeta.

"Think this is the one or should we look at another one?" Haymitch looks at me for a moment,

"I think that one's fine. As long as Annie sticks to District 4 colors I'm sure it will match her. I wouldn't worry too much about that. Katniss's prep team is pretty capable at what they do. They'll make it match," Out of the corner of my eye when Haymitch says Katniss, Peeta's face turns a deep red followed by purple. I have just enough time to cover my ears at this reaction before Peeta lets out a blood curdling scream. He continues to yell more things at me as I make my way to the bathroom and change out of the suit.

"You can't trust her!" The sad part of that, our roles have reversed. He trusted her, he loved her, and I had to make sure she wasn't going to kill me in my sleep. Now I trust her, she helped me get through my separation from Annie, and he's the one worrying about her killing him in his sleep.

"He believes her. Finnick believes everything she says. You have to do something." I assume he's shouting this at Haymitch now. "I hate them both! They don't deserve to live here! They did this to me, to all of us!" I should have known than to have opened my mouth. I know he's still struggling knowing the difference between real and not real. It was part of his hijacking. Something tells me that if Katniss were to walk in the room and he had to choose which one of us to go after, I'd be his first target. His hatred for me isn't anything that I understand, but it's something that I'm sure he knows is very real.

I wish that things could be easier for him. It really does bring me great pain to know that they were happy together. They could have been happy together. I don't blame him for being angry with me. He should be jealous of Annie and me, and I hate that.

After he's dragged off and sedated, I'm able to take the suit and slip off. I didn't realize that this was going to take as long as it has.

"Here pretty boy, let me take that, I'll find you someone who can take it in to fit you," Haymitch says coming up beside me.  
"I didn't mean to cause trouble," I tell him sadly.  
"It's alright, he's still unstable. Don't worry too much. Go have dinner and move on. He'll be fine," Haymitch says. I sigh as the old man takes the suit and I have nothing better to do but follow his advice and wait until Annie gets back.

~HG~HG~HG~

It's later than I thought when they finally do get back. The few times I've seen Peeta since earlier today, he's tried to make a dart for me. He's still angry. I wonder how Annie would react if we went back to her compartment for a while. I don't know that I feel comfortable going to mine. Especially with Annie.

She steps off the hovercraft glowing with happiness. Her eyes are soft and sparkly. I know that her day went much better than mine. All I have to do is open my arms to her and she fills them.

"They've almost got everything ready for the wedding. Just another week," I tell her happily. She looks up at me.

"A week?" clearly this has taken her by surprise.

"There are a few more things they've got to touch up and put together. Is a week okay with you?" If it's not, I won't have a single problem asking Plutarch to change it. She smiles at me.

"It's perfectly fine. I just wasn't expecting it so soon is all, but I don't mind it at all," she wraps her arms around my neck instead and I pull her closer to me and then kiss the tip of her nose.  
"I take it that you found the perfect dress then? You haven't stopped smiling," I comment. Her radiating smile always brings a smile to my face too.

"It's more than perfect," she says just before leaning forward to kiss me. She smiles against my lips and without breaking our kiss I bend down a little to pick her up. She automatically wraps her legs around my waist and we stand there kissing for another moment or two.

"I love you," I tell her as I rest my forehead against hers. I start walking toward the elevators. It's late and I don't want another run in with Peeta.

"I love you too," she says. She positions herself where she can rest her head on my shoulder. I'm not really sure how much more my heart can take. My love for her is already spilling out where I can't contain it. She doesn't move or lift her head until I stop in front of her compartment. I pull a key out of my pocket. We both have keys to both her compartment and mine.

"This is my compartment," she says as I swing the door open.

"I know where we are Annie," I chuckle at her curiosity. She's adorable. I move into her room and try to set her down on the bed. Only problem is that she doesn't let me go so I stumble and fall on top of her. I'm not sure what's really funny about it, but one look at each other and the both of us are laughing. I roll over and pull her up further into the bed with me. She willingly cuddles into me.

"Why are we in here?" she asks.

"I…" I don't know that I want to tell her. Maybe she won't question it. "I pissed Peeta off. He knows where my compartment is but he doesn't know where yours is. He's under the impression that we live together already. Of course he's almost right. We do almost live together and in a week we will permanently live together," I smile at her hoping it's enough that she'll go along with it.

"Next week," she trails off. Suddenly she's blushing and something about the expression on her face tells me I know what she's thinking. This time next week we'll be just a little closer than we are now. I untangle myself from her and put some space between our bodies.

"Annie," there are tears welling up in her eyes. "I promise you, if you don't want to, we don't have to. I love you for who you are not based on anything we've done or haven't done. Nothing is going to change that." The tears have spilled over and I reach over and wipe them away. I get up from the bed entirely so I can wrap the blankets around her creating more space between us.

"Don't leave," she says with anguish.

"I'm not leaving Annie, I just don't want you to be uncomfortable and you are," When she's under the blankets, I lie down beside her on top of them. I'm not sure what I can do to help her get over her uncomfortableness, so I simply just lie her wiping her tears as they fall allowing my hands on her face to be the only parts of us that we touch.

"I'm sorry," she says.

"It's okay, I understand, it's a new concept to you, but it's going to be okay. It's all up to what you want and what makes you happy. I'm happy with the idea that you're going to be my wife. Finally, because I love you so much and you are all that my life will ever need." She cries a little harder. "It's okay, I'm right here. Try to sleep," I wrap my arms around her again lightly. There's still some space between us. Eventually she stops crying and starts to hiccup. I'm tempted to get up and get her a glass of water to help when she whispers my name through the darkness.

"Finnick?" she says

"Hm?" I see that her eyes are open and she's watching me. There's a stray lock of hair in her face and I tuck it behind her ear.

"I'm sorry," she says again.  
"It's okay Annie. I understand. It'll be alright though. Don't worry about it," I tell her. She moves closer to me. I'm not going to protest, but I know she feels my hesitation. She rests her head between my neck and my chest and my immediate reaction is to wrap my arms around her.

"I love you," she says sleepily.

"I love you too. It's going to be okay I promise."


	19. Finnick's POV 9 Part Two

It's the morning of the wedding and I can't sleep. Aside from the night that we spent together in her compartment, I still refuse to sleep in the bed with Annie. I'm tempted to crawl up beside her now but I don't. I continue to try to sleep but end up waking in fits anyways. I sit up and look at Annie. She's not stirred at all tonight and she's so peaceful and beautiful.

I can't take it that I can't sleep, so I get up and write her a note. When I'm done I take it, and her, to her compartment. When I pick her up, I don't really want to let her go. She adjusts in my arms and buries her head against my chest. When I get to her room, I put the note on the nightstand and I do give in and crawl into the bed with her cuddled close to my chest. Just a few more hours before I'll leave her to go get ready for the wedding.

I've finally drifted off into a peaceful sleep with her in my arms, when my watch beeps. This is going to be a long day. I kiss her cheek before I untangle myself from her and tuck the blankets in tighter around her. I tape the note on the back of her door so she'll see it when she wakes.  
Last night I had been approached by Katniss's Prep Team. I told them that I was going to move her to her compartment and I told them that if she was asleep that I didn't want them to wake her up. There is no need for her to start the day any earlier than she has too. She's already still nervous enough about all of it as it is.

I make my way down to meet Beetee at Special Defense. He and Haymitch are helping me get ready today. Haymitch found someone who was able to take the suit in enough that it will fit me.

"Since the only Prep Team is helping your girl get ready today, we can't promise that you'll turn out half as good looking as she will," Haymitch says.

"It's okay. I'm naturally beautiful," I tease.

"Well, you still have some work to do before tonight. We're eating lunch in here, and I think Annie's going to have lunch in Command. My face falls.

"Don't worry, Coin won't be there," Beetee reassures me. Good, because the less amount of stress Annie's under today, the better.  
They were right about the fact that they weren't a Prep Team. I feel like I'm a mangled body. My hair has been combed oddly, and I smell like beer because Haymitch has been drinking heavily today. How he got his hands on the stuff I don't know.  
The suit is spotless and fits perfectly. I examine myself in the mirror.

"Can I please do my own hair?" I ask. I know it's gotten long here in District 13. Annie said she likes it like this, but I don't. It's hanging over my eyes.

"You don't like the way it looks?" Beetee asks. He stands beside me looking at my reflection with me. I see that he's done my hair like it's done because his is done in the same way.  
"I don't think Annie will like it. I told them I wanted her to look as natural Annie as possible without going back to Beauty Base Zero. I'd like to look as natural myself as possible." I say. He sighs and gives me the comb. I brush it all in my face and then slick it back the way it normally hangs – not in my eyes.

Finally I'm told that it's almost time. The hours today have passed agonizingly slow, and I suddenly find myself excited and thankful that I get to get away from these two lunatics. When I walk into the banquet hall I am amazed by what's here. One of the girls tucks a yellow daisy into my breast pocket. It stands out since my suit is powder blue and my shirt is a sand colored tan, but I assume that something that Annie must be wearing is going to be yellow.  
It's decorated in streamers of blue, green, tan, and yellow. I'm guessing since those are pretty common District 4 colors, that those are our wedding colors. I don't object. The tables are covered in blue or yellow table cloths and the archway of an alter has yellow and white daisies covering it. Dalton, the man from District 10 is waiting for me already. There are too many chairs to count that are set up in the middle of the room and almost all of them are filled. I find that I'm anxious, and surprisingly nervous, as I make my way to the front where I will stand and wait for Prim and then Annie to enter.

I find myself rocking back and forth on my heels, fingering the flower in my pocket. Dalton reaches forward and touches my hand on the flower.

"You're going to tear it if you keep playing with it," he warns me. Instead I knot my fingers together. It's not the same as rope. Finally, the doors open. Prim walks in at a slow pace. For a fourteen year old girl, she's beautiful. Her dress is the same sand-reminding color of my shirt, and she's got a yellow sash across her along with yellow along the hems of the sleeves and the bottom of the dress. I smile as I realize that must be why my flower is yellow. Her attire is like the beach and the sun. Her smile is the warmth the sun radiates.

Following behind her is Annie. If I thought Prim was beautiful, Annie is worth ten of her. Annie's dress is a sea green. Her dress and my suit complement the ocean. Her dress, like Prim's has a sash and the lace except it's blue. A very close color to my suit.

Her hair is done up in curly ringlets that shape her face very nicely. There's a natural pink to her cheeks. I can't make eye contact with her because she's pretty focused on Prim's feet. I wonder why, before I think that maybe it's so that she'll pace herself getting to me.

When I'm pretty sure my face is going to fall off from smiling, she finally gets to me. I extend my hand and take hers as she finally allows me to make eye contact. Her bright green eyes don't even have a tint of cloudiness to them and I swear my heart is trying to fight its way out of my chest. The dress and the sash offset her eyes wonderfully.

"Welcome guests, today we are here to celebrate the union of Annie Cresta and Finnick Odair." Dalton begins the ceremony. I never paid attention to them before, and I don't plan on paying that much attention to it now. I squeeze Annie's hand and mouth the word "Forever"

Traditions in District 4 aren't written or spoken vows. We're covered by a woven grass net. I watch Annie's fascination of it as she reaches out and touches it. She looks at me in awe as she realizes that only someone from our District could have made this. I was shocked myself to know that there are people from 4 here. Plutarch introduced them to me a few weeks back. An older couple who I recognized as friends of Mags'. I saw them as I searched the crowd earlier. They could not have been happier to have made this net for us.

Dalton takes the bowl of salt water behind him, and offers it under the net to us. The groom always goes first. The touching of lips with salt water means that by the sea we are bonded for life. Should we break this bonding it's a myth that the ocean will swallow us whole.  
I dip the tips of my fingers in the water and touch her lips. She closes her eyes and I hope that this isn't going to break her. Not when we're so close. I squeeze her hand to remind her that I'm right here and she's alright. She opens her eyes and smiles at me. Her eyes are still crystal clear. She then proceeds to dip her fingers in the water. I watch as her smile softens and the feel of the water touches her fingers. She brings them to my mouth and I kiss her fingers before she pulls them away. It receives a small giggle out of her.  
Dalton goes on with the meanings of the net and the salt water, and Annie and I are still lost in each other's eyes. The net is lifted from us and I hear the traditional "You may kiss your bride" line. I take my hands from Annie's and wrap them around her face as our lips meet. She wraps her arms around my neck and I know that I have to end it because she won't. I wouldn't either if it weren't for the people who are now clapping and cheering for us. I rest my forehead against hers for a moment.

"I love you Mrs. Odair," I tell her. I take her hand and we turn to face everyone. We're presented as Mr. and Mrs. Odair and we walk down the aisle together allowing the party to be started behind us.

We watch the people dance, clap, and cheer as District 12 show's us all what they're really made of. They might not be District 1 or 2 that the Capitol has brainwashed into minions, but they're their own people. They show us all how to have a good time.  
They play music for all the Districts in attendance. It's only fair for the guests, but when they begin to play District 4 music, they insist that Annie and I take the dance floor. I know she's never been one for attention like I am, but tonight, she'll have to get used to having some of my spotlight. I twirl her around a time or two as we dance together. I think she prefers the slower songs though because those mean I get to hold her close as we move around in a circle together. When she rests her head on my shoulder I know that she's content to never have to leave my arms. I'm pretty happy holding her too. Separation never has liked us much. They've played a handful of quiet slow songs, so they decide to pick up the pace and the volume. Annie jumps.

"You can't fall asleep on me yet love," I tell her. I know if they'd played two or three more soft slow songs she'd be out.

"Sorry," she mumbles. Not even a kitten could be cuter than she is. I kiss the tip of her nose. Suddenly the crowd gasps and parts like an ocean. Reflexively I tighten my arms around Annie, and move slightly to position myself between her and whatever they're all looking at. I'm relieved when I finally see that it's a magnificent wedding cake. They stop the cart in front of us. It's a massive collage of the beach, down to the finest details and grains of sand. There's only one person who could have made this cake and he belonged to District 12, not District 4. I saw his work in both the 74th and 75th Hunger Games. Annie doesn't know it was done by Peeta. I don't think I'll tell her.

"I know it's not a tradition in District 4 like it is in District 10, but in 10, the groom cuts the first pieces of cake and the bride and groom feed each other the first piece. It's a fun tradition. If you want to anyways," Dalton holds the knife out to me and I take it wrapping one arm around Annie's waist and pulling her closer to my side. I look down at her. She's still looking at the beauty of it.

"What do you think?" I ask her.

"It's so beautiful" she says as she looks at me.

"Ready to have some more fun?" I ask as I swipe my hand in the frosting while she's paying attention to my face. She shoots me a glance of confusion and I know I've taken her by surprise as I smear the frosting on her face. Normally, she doesn't do well with surprises like that, but with my arm around her, and my body so close to hers, and the fact that I'm the one who's surprised her, she'll be alright. People gasp and laugh at the shock on her face. I laugh as she slowly reaches up and touches the frosting, getting some on her fingers before she tells herself I really just did that. I pull her face close and kiss her again. I can't resist a face like that. I taste the frosting. It's really good too. I go to teasingly lick it off her face but she protests and people bring us napkins. I wouldn't have surrendered to her protests if it had just been me and her in the room. She tries to get it off her face herself but only ends up making a bigger mess. I laugh at her again as I take the napkins and clean off the mess I made.

"I'll find a way to get you back for this," she says. I'm sure it's an empty threat. Either that or we'd better be alone when she does because the way I would get her back, or prevent her from getting me back, doesn't need to involve other eyes.

The cake ended up being just as good as the frosting and Annie and I laugh as we feed it to each other. She manages to get some of the frosting up my nose without even trying. When it turns into a mostly eaten cake, and the music slows and turns down, the place begins to empty out. I'm spinning around holding Annie close again when Plutarch approaches us. He hands me a slip of paper and a key.

"You'll be given two weeks to clear your compartments out and turn in the keys. The paper contains your new compartment number, and that obviously is your key. Congratulations you two. You deserve happiness," he says smiling.

"Thank you Plutarch," he waves his hand at us and continues on his way, happy that Coin gave in and let him host this for us. I look at Annie again and then take her face in my hands. I block her peripheral vision with her hands so that the only thing she can see and focus on is me.

"The rest of the night is up to you. We can go to your room, my room, or we can go explore our new home," I can't help but to smile at the sound of "our new home." I watch a flicker of emotions flash across her face as she finally settles on fear.

"I want to. I'm just scared," she finally says. I'm taken aback by this.

"Scared? Annie, this is me, you ought to know I will never hurt you and there is nothing to be afraid of." I've never told her this before because until now it might have upset her. Now I'm only saying it to make her feel better. "When I was younger, before I had to mentor you, before I fell in love with you, I liked it. I liked every minute of what they did to me. I never loved them like I love you though. It's a wonderful thing, but I wish I could have waited. I wish that I could experience it for the first time with you. I won't force anything on you. You tell me what you want to do. As long as you're happy, I'm happy," she's started crying again. I move my hands and wipe my thumb under her eyes.

"You are so good to me Fin," she says. There are no words and nothing I could ever do to make her realize just how much I love her. My love for her is too good to be explained by words or actions. It's a lot deeper than that.

"We've been through a lot, you've been through a lot, and I love you," I tell her. She's quiet for a few minutes as her tears settle and I watch her think, I pull her close again and we're spinning around to the music. I will not try to talk her into anything as much as I want to. I don't want to make things worse for her. I'm still shocked that she's afraid.  
"I can't decide if we should go to our home or to your compartment," she says finally. I don't think twice about my answer.

"Let's go to my place then. I think you'll be more comfortable in a place that's familiar to you." She's slept in my bed almost every night she's been in District 13. It's pretty much as good as hers. I take her hand and together we leave the banquet hall. The closer we get, the more I feel her shake, and the more I worry about her. I'm inclined to tell her no even if she does say yes. I am absolutely baffled by her actions. As much as I want her to say yes, as much as I really want her, it's not about me. She's scared, and there's not much I'm going to be able to do to make it better. Not this time. I unlock and open the door and then move in front of it so I'm facing her.

"We don't have to Annie. If you're that scared of it, it's okay if we don't. All that matters is that you are my wife. Now and for forever. I love you and nothing will ever change that." I watch her and I wish that I could hold her shoulders and stop her shaking. I wish that there was something I could do to take her fear away.

"I'm scared and nervous," she finally says. "I want to," I look at her trying to see why she's so afraid. I'm not sure that she's sure about this. I wrap my arms around her waist and pick her up anyways. I told her it was her decision and scared or not, she seems to have decided she wants it.

"I'll be as gentle as possible and I'll make this easy for you." I swing the door shut with my foot and continue walking toward the bedroom. "If it's too much, just tell me. Or if I hurt you or you change your mind." I have never seen, or felt, her shake this much. Not even when she returned to me from her Hunger Games. I haven't ever seen her this afraid of anything before. It would make sense to me if her games had made her afraid like this, but I just don't understand how and why having sex with me, something she wanted years ago, is this scary.

"You should kiss me before I do change my mind," she says. If it'll make her feel better, I do. I set her down on her feet not breaking the kiss and begin to pull all the pins from her hair. One of the last things I want is for a pin to end up jabbing one of us in the middle of the night. When I'm done with that I deepen our kiss and she responds the way she should.  
Only once our clothes are in a pile in the floor and we're together under the blanket does she finally stop shaking and gives into what her body tells her she wants. Finally, after all the hell the Capitol put us through, after all the pain we've suffered just to be together, nothing is going to come between us. This is our night and it marks the start of our lives.


	20. Annie's POV 9

Annie's POV

I wake up in the morning having slept better than I think I ever have. Finnick has his arms around me and he's still asleep. I wrap my arms around him and snuggle closer to him resting my head on his chest. I'm not sure what it was that I was afraid of. Maybe the fact that it hurt like hell, but Finnick kept to his promise that he would be gentle and make it easy for me. I know he held back, but even though it hurt and I'm really sore, I have no complaints. Suddenly his arms tighten around me and he kisses the top of my head.

"Good morning beautiful," he says. I smile.

"Morning," I respond.

"Are you alright?" he asks concerned.

"I'm alright, just a little sore is all," I tell him.

"We don't have to do anything around 13 for a few days. It's just you and me," I hear the smile in his voice.

"So I can lay here just like this for as long as I want right?" I tease. I reposition myself so I can look up and see his face. He chuckles.

"If that's what you want to do," he says he rolls over on his side so he's facing me better.

"I love you," I tell him.

"I love you too," he says. He leans forward and kisses me. It's a slow sweet kiss and doesn't last very long before he pulls back waiting for my reaction.

"I'm okay Fin, it was..." I'm not sure if there's a word that can describe how I felt.

"I'm sorry," he says.

"No, don't be," I reach up and push a stray lock of hair out of his eyes, "you gave me the option to say no, and I said yes. There just isn't a word good enough to describe it," I tell him. He looks at me funnily for a moment. I kiss him just to prove my point. I feel that it didn't really help.

"What time is it? Are you hungry? That's the only thing we have to do outside my compartment. Unless you'd like to go ahead and clean out your compartment and go check out our compartment," he says with a smile. I shake my head at him.

"I don't want to get out of bed yet," I tell him nestling my head in his neck. He doesn't protest. He turns back onto his back and I move and rest my head on his chest.

I fall almost back asleep when I hear his stomach grumble against my ear.

"You're hungry Fin," I say.

"Good observation," he ruffles my hair and chuckles.

"I don't mind going to eat and clean out my compartment," he looks at the clock. It reads noon. Just in time for lunch.

~HG~HG~HG~

My compartment takes one full trip to clean out. The both of us have our arms full of my belongings. There wasn't much to begin with. Our new compartment is on a lower floor than we live on now. The only reason this bothers me is because it's farther from the sunshine and the outdoors.

"Wait here while I go put your things down," Finnick tells me as we approach compartment 1052. He takes his armful of things and disappears into the compartment. When he returns he takes my arm load, kisses my cheek, and then goes inside again. When he comes back the second time, he doesn't hesitate before his arms are behind my knees and he scoops me up into his arms.

"Tradition that we didn't get to last night," he smiles down at me. The groom is supposed to carry the bride into the place where they stay for their honeymoon. I was too much of a nervous wreck for that last night. But this is our new home.

It's not that much different from the compartments we had before. It's a little bigger and there are three rooms instead of one. The bigger room is the one we take. It's the first room he takes me to.

The bed is bigger than the ones we had in our single compartments and he doesn't waste any time holding me a little tighter and jumping onto the bed. He rolls over and tickles me. If the door was open and people passed by, my shrieks of laughter would be enough for someone to come find out what's going on. Finally he stops and ends up on top of me and he's kissing every inch of my face he can find. My laughter has not subsided and having Finnick on top of me isn't helping my breathing. Finally when I can't breathe anymore, I reach behind me head and grab my pillow. I manage to get my head off of it enough to bring it around and start hitting him.

"Can't. Breathe. Fin. Stopit." I say between breaths and laughter.

"What was that?" he smiles deviously. It takes a few more whacks before he rolls over onto my side and stops to breathe himself.

"I love you Annie Odair," he says gently kissing my cheek. I don't know that I'll get used to my new name, but I definitely love hearing it come from Finnick's mouth. It takes me a few minutes to calm my breathing.

"I love you too Fin," I tell him. His eyes are closed and his arm is lying lightly across my stomach and around my waist. He moves so his head is lying on my shoulder and he kisses my bare neck.

"We should go turn in your keys," he says. I can tell by his voice that he doesn't really want to. I roll over so I'm facing him. He tightens his arm around me.

"Why don't we just stay here instead?"

"I think I can live with that," he smiles and then kisses me.

~HG~HG~HG~

It takes us almost the rest of the two weeks to clean out Finnick's compartment and to get our new home set up. Between that and all the time we spend entangled together, we don't see much of District 13.

It isn't until we go to turn in the keys to Finnick's old compartment that Plutarch and Coin tell him he's got to be back on a soldier schedule. He's got to do training now.

The last two weeks have been some of the best, but we've forgotten that life has still gone on outside of us. I thought it was nice waking up to him every morning, but waking up with his arms around me and being able to fall asleep in them is the best thing in the world.

"So what would you like to do for our last free day together?" he asks. "Do you want to see if they'll give you a few simple tasks to do around 13 while they've got me busy?" I contemplate this for a moment.

"It wouldn't be a bad idea," I shrug my shoulders. At least I'd have something to fill my day with. Something more than just the meadow in Special Defense and helping Beetee with his contraptions.

President Coin agrees to let me help out in the kitchens some days and in the hospital on other days. Seems easy enough.

"Can we go outside for a while? Think they would let us as long as we don't leave the District?" I really miss the sunshine and the outdoors. It's been months since I've been outside.

"I don't see why we couldn't. Let's go up and ask the guards then." Finnick replies.

The guard doesn't seem to mind much. We're given some sort of device and told to be back inside by 1800 reflection time. The first breath I take of the fresh air stings my nose and my lungs. It's been way too long. There are other smells and scents that I didn't realize I missed. I let go of Finnick's hand and twirl around in circles with my arms outstretched. When I'm dizzy and I fall, Finnick manages to catch me before I hit the ground. I can't help but to giggle.

"If only there were water. I miss it all too. Just think though, we'll be back to District 4 soon enough. We'll be able to show them that we survived." he says

"They probably don't even miss me," my Games and my win never had been popular. No one likes a Victor who won by chance. No one but her mentor, best friend, and now husband. I shake my head at him at that thought.

"Annie, with a name like mine, if they didn't love you before, they have to love you now."

"Just because you love me doesn't mean everyone else will Fin," he's taken one of my hands and is spinning me around.

"Well, I'm all that matters then," he smiles. I wish we could bring a picnic lunch out here or something. The people of District 13 are too uptight for my liking sometimes.

As we're headed back inside, we run into Katniss and Gale who are returning from the outskirts of the District.

"Howdy," Gale says to us. "How is married life treating you?"

"Pretty good, only a few small changes to life," Finnick wraps his arm around my waist, his hand resting on my hip. "What are you doing out here?"

"We're allowed to hunt during the last hours of our training time. It's what we did in District 12 and the people here want to keep Katniss happy." Gale shakes his head. Upon seeing us, Katniss went on ahead instead of hanging back to chat. "They're using her. Just like she was used in the Games. She doesn't realize that's what they're doing, unless she does and she's given into them. I hate it for her."

"I'm sorry," Finnick says. "I knew they were using her in the Games I just didn't expect them to push her as hard as they are. I feel awful about what happened to Peeta as well. I shouldn't have let them get separated." he hangs his head.

"You did what you could given the situation Fin," I speak up. I had one arm around behind his back and I wrap my other arm around his front to hug him.

"It's done with for now. I just want to know how Coin plans on ending this war with us as the winning side. Last time 13 rebelled, the districts lost." I think that's what we all want. For this to be over, the Hunger Games to cease to exist, and for life to go back to normal. Of course it won't be normal anymore. Too many things have changed since then.

~HG~HG~HG~

I find that working in the kitchen isn't as spectacular as I thought. I prefer working with Prim and Mrs. Everdeen in the hospital. The kitchens are mostly done by older, grey headed, and mostly toothless ladies.

"Good morning Annie!" Prim greets me as I enter the hospital to work for the day.

"Morning Prim!" I say. I adore her enthusiasm. "I'll see you at lunch," I turn and tell Finnick before hugging and kissing him and letting him make his way to wherever Coin has him today.

"We're working with those who've broken a bone today," Prim tells me as we walk further down the hall. It's better than what we've been working with. People who need stitches, some with really bad gashes. It makes me wonder what they did to get all bloodied up like they do. There's almost nothing here that can hurt you. Unless you're looking for danger anyways. Broken bones make more sense.

When the day hospital shift is coming to the close, a mother brings her three year old daughter in. The little girl is screaming worse than I've ever heard. Her leg is twisted in a way I hope to never see again. The bone is almost protruding from her skin. It makes me sick to just look at it. I don't even want to imagine how much pain she's in. Prim rushes forward and takes the child from her mother.

"We'll take care of her," Prim attempts to soothe the mother. I don't know that I can handle the child, but I step forward to try and comfort the mother.

"The staff here is great, your daughter will be alright," I wrap an arm around the mothers shoulder, take her hand and lead her to a waiting room. I sit with her and convince her that it's going to be okay. It takes thirty painful minutes, after the first twenty minutes, Finnick comes bursting in.

"There you are! What happened is everything alright?" he asks.

"I'm alright Fin, sit down and wait with us?" I ask. I see in his face he's worried. We always meet at the same time, same place, every day. He sits down beside me. I take one hand and place it on his knee. Most of my attention is on the woman on the other side of me.

Prim comes out holding the little girl. Her leg has a bright pink cast on it and her smile is just as bright.

The mother jumps up and takes the girl from Prim.

"All better mommy," the little girl says. The mother hugs her.

"Thank you, both of you," she looks at both me and Prim. I smile at her.

"No more getting hurt little one," Prim says with a smile on her face. Mrs. Everdeen comes out to talk to the mother and Finnicks arms find their way around my waist and he rests his chin on my shoulder. He kisses my neck.

"See you tomorrow Annie," Prim whispers. I feel myself being dragged backwards. She waves her fingers at Finnick and he lifts one hand from my stomach to wave back. Once we're clear of the waiting room he doesn't waste time spinning me to face him and throwing me over his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" I demand.

"Taking you to dinner. Any objections will be ignored," he says. He's so infuriating sometimes.

When we get to the cafe he sets me down.

"Annie," he pauses. His eyes look troubled. "I'm leaving District 13 for a while. Me, as well as a few others. We've been assigned a mission and we don't know if or when we will return. It's very dangerous and the chances of survival are about fifty percent. I promise you though I will return to you, I just can't promise when. I've never broken a promise yet. This will be out last night together." His hands are on my shoulders, his face inches away from mine. The smile from helping the little girl and her mother has faded. After tonight I might not ever see him again. Involuntary tears start to fall from my eyes.

"You're leaving me?" he wraps his arms around me.

"I'm sorry Annie, it's not my choice. They wanted as many Victors as possible in on this but it's dangerous. There is no way in hell I would let you go with or without me. You'll be safe here and I haven't broken a promise to you all my life. I'll still be with you. On the inside, right here," he puts his finger over where my heart is. "Shh, don't cry. I love you. Let's go eat something and then we can go home," he pulls back and wipes the fallen tears away.

We make the best of our last night together and six o clock in the morning comes much too soon. There's a knock on our door. I can't help but to cling to him and start crying all over again.

"I love you so much. Don't let anyone tell you that I don't. Don't let anyone tell you that they mean more to me than you do, because you mean everything to me. Not even my own life means as much to me as you do. I will come back to you. I will. When we win this war we'll go home to District 4. You and me. I love you Annie Odair." he says hugging me tightly. "I'm sorry. I have to go, don't cry. I'm coming back," he kisses me and untangles my arms from his body at the same time. "I'm leaving my heart with you. Take care of it okay? I love you," and he's gone before I can say anything at all. I didn't even get to tell him that I love him too. Even though he said not to cry I'm sure the whole compartment is full of the sound of my sobs.

* * *

**Authors Note**: My computer charger died on me as well as the computer it's self. I can still function from my iPod, check this, reply to reviews and stuff, write, however I can't upload chapters. :/ so I'm hoping that between now and the time I get a new charger (who knows when :((( ) that I'll have a handful of new chapters to upload.


	21. Finnick's POV 10

Finnick's POV

In the morning, I wake long before Annie does. I'm content just laying here holding her against me until she wakes up. I leave my eyes closed as I lay here resting. I don't know what she was so afraid of, but I understand the tears I had to put up with in the end. The first time is always the worst, but I did what I could to make it easier on her. It was hard for me to do. I have never had someone love me back so equally. I've never had anyone make me feel the way she made, and makes, me feel. Most of my relationships are one sided on the female's end and I hate every minute of it. Being with Annie was more than I imagined it would be. I wanted her just as much as she wanted me. I'm entirely relaxed enjoying the warmth of her body curled up against mine, when I feel her stir. She wraps her arms around me and snuggles a little closer. I don't resist as I tighten my arms and kiss the top of her head.

"Good morning beautiful," I tell her.

"Morning," she says happily. I haven't heard her that happy in a long time.

"Are you alright?" she cried herself to sleep in my arms. There was nothing I could do to make it hurt any less."  
"I'm alright, just a little sore is all."

"We don't have to do anything around 13 for a few days. It's just you and me," I like the sound of that. Nothing at all to worry or concern ourselves with.  
"So I can lay here just like this for as long as I want?" she asks. She apparently likes the sound of that too. She turns so she can see my face as I laugh at her.

"If that's what you want to do," I roll over on my side so that I'm facing her.

"I love you,"

"I love you too," I lean forward and kiss her. I don't know how she'll react so it's a soft gentle kiss that doesn't last more than a few seconds. I pull back and watch her face.

"I'm okay Fin, it was…" she trails off which worries me a little.

"I'm sorry,"

"No, don't be," she pushes the hair out of my face, "you gave me the option to say no and I said yes. There just isn't a word good enough to describe it," she's smiling but I'm not sure I believe it. My face reflects that. She kisses me, but I still don't know. That wasn't her reaction last night.

"What time is it?" I change the subject. "Are you hungry? That's the only thing we have to do outside my compartment. Unless you'd like to go ahead and clean out your compartment and go check out our compartment," I smile, and she shakes her head at me.

"I don't want to get out of bed yet," she says, and then nestles her head in my neck. I hug her for a moment before I turn back over on my back so she's more comfortable. She moves her head to my chest and my stomach. I knot my hands in her hair and close my eyes again. I'm sure she's done the same. It isn't until my stomach growls, that we move or say anything.

"You're hungry Fin," she says.

"Good observation," I don't normally like being sarcastic toward her, but I laugh and ruffle her hair.

"I don't mind going to eat and clean out my compartment," she says and watches me check the clock and determine that it's just in time for lunch.

~HG~HG~HG~

We take twenty minutes and pack her compartment. There wasn't much there anyways, since she left most of the things I brought her in the bag I brought them in. She gives me her key and I string it on the loop with mine. When we get to our compartment on a lower level than we're used to, I stop in front of our new home; Compartment 1052.

"Wait here while I go put your things down," I tell her. She looks at me questioningly but doesn't ask. I set the belongings down in the smaller of the two extra bedrooms. We don't have a use for them yet, and I hope we'll be back in District 4 before we do develop a need for them.

I make my way back out to the hallway and take the arm load from Annie. I kiss her cheek and then take the second bundle into the room with the last one. When I make my way back to Annie, the look on her face says she hasn't figured out what I'm up to. I sweep her off her feet and catch her head before she falls.

"Tradition that we didn't get to last night," I smile down at her. Now it dawns on her. She was way to upset and jittery for me to have done this last night. Its tradition that the groom carries his bride through the doorway of the place of their honeymoon. Since they don't do honeymoons here in 13, I figure it would be acceptable to carry her through the entrance of our new home. I stand in the middle of the compartment and let her look around for a minute. We can look around later, right now there's nothing more that I want than to just simply snuggle with her.  
The bed in our room is really big and looks really soft and comfortable. I hold her a little tighter than normal so that I don't hurt her, and I run and jump onto the bed. I was right, it is soft, and I'm sure it will be comfortable once we are still. I roll over and begin to tickle her. She's always hated it when I tickle her, and I've always loved it just to hear the sound of her laughter. I'm not worried about anything other than maybe payback later, but even that I'm not too worried about. She's never been big on the idea or very good at payback. Finally after I can't resist anymore, I pin her underneath me and start kissing her face. She's still laughing but struggling to get a pillow. Finally she frees it and starts hitting me.

"Can't. Breathe. Fin. Stop it!" She says between breaths. She's still laughing but I know she's running out of breath.

"What was that?" I say teasingly. She whacks me a few more times before I finally roll over and let her have some air. "I love you Annie Odair," I say kissing her cheek. She smiles but she's so far out of breath she can't say anything back. I see it in her face that she loves me too. Finally when she has the strength to say so, she does.

"I love you too Fin," by this point I've closed my eyes and laid my arm around her waist. I move my head to her neck and kiss it.

"We should go turn in your keys," I say, not really wanting to move. I hope she says she doesn't want to. She rolls over under my arm so we're both on our sides facing each other.  
"Why don't we just stay here instead?" she asks. That's my girl.

"I think I can live with that," I tell her, and then I kiss her.

~HG~HG~HG~

I managed to convince Annie that it would get easier and hurt less the more times we decided to do more than just sleep in bed. Between that, and cleaning out my compartment, two weeks flies by faster than either of us would like.  
When we go to turn in all our keys, Plutarch and Coin stop us.  
"Finnick, we're going to need you back on a schedule around here. You've had two weeks to yourselves and it's time to get back to work." I don't really like this idea and I know Annie likes it even less. We go out into the hallway to return to our compartment for the night. If this is my last free day with her though, I don't want to go home yet.

"So what would you like to do for our last free day together?" I ask her. I have another thought. She's going to be all alone again once I start working around 13 again. "Do you want to see if they'll give you a few simple tasks to do around 13 while they've got me busy?" She's quiet for a moment as she considers my offer.

"It wouldn't be a bad idea," she shrugs her shoulders. It's something she can do rather than sit around and miss me all day long.

President Coin agrees to let her help out in the kitchens on some days and in the hospital on others.

"Can we go outside for a while? Think they would let us as long as we don't leave the District?" Annie asks once we're clear of Coin and Plutarch.

"I don't see why we couldn't. Let's go up and ask the guards then," I reply.

The guards done seem to mind. We're given a communicuff and told to be back inside by 1800 reflection time. When we get outside, she lets go of my hand and twirls around in circles with her arms outstretched until she's dizzy, and I manage to catch her before she hits the ground. She looks up at me and laughs. I didn't know show badly she's missed the sunshine and District 4.

"If only there was water." I think out loud. "I miss it all too. Just think though, we'll be back to District 4 soon enough. We'll be able to show them we survived," I say.

"They probably don't even miss me," she says. I see the sorrow fill her face. She shakes her head.

"Annie, with a name like mine, if they didn't love you before, they have to love you now," I tell her with a smile. Odair happens to be more popular than I really like. I take her hand and spin her around in slower circles.

"Just because you love me, doesn't mean anyone else will Fin," she says sadly.

"Well, I'm all that matters then," I smile and pull her into my arms for a moment before I spin her back out again. We spend the rest of our afternoon laughing together and soaking up the sunshine. Everything is alright.

As we're headed back inside, we're greeted by Gale and Katniss who also are returning inside the District.

"Howdy, how's married life treating you?" Gale asks. Katniss waves at us, and then hurries inside in front of us.

"Pretty, good, only a few small changes to life," I answer him pulling Annie closer to my side. She wraps an arm around my waist too. "What are you doing out here?"

"We're allowed to hunt during the last hours of our training time. It's what we did in District 12, and the people here want to keep Katniss happy." Gale shakes his head. "They're using her. Just like she was used in the games. She doesn't realize that's what they're doing. Unless she does, and she's given into them. I hate it for her." He says. I suddenly feel really bad. I could have done something. I told her about Snow using Peeta to break her, and I told her a few things here and there, but I don't feel like that was enough.

"I'm sorry," I say. I don't think that really means or does anything, but I say it anyways. "I knew they were using her in the Games, I just didn't expect them to push her as hard as they are. I feel awful about what happened to Peeta as well. I shouldn't have let them get separated." I look down at my feet.

"You did what you could given the situation Fin," Annie says, wrapping her other arm around the front of me and hugging me,

"It's done with now. I just want to know how Coin plans on ending this war with us on the winning side. Last time 13 rebelled, the Districts lost." I say. It doesn't look like anything is going to change, but I have inside information. I don't know how well their tactics are going to work, but I know that they're planning something bigger than they're telling even us.

~HG~HG~HG~

Annie and I wake up together the next morning and neither of us really want to get out of bed. We do anyways, and before long we're going down the hall to get scheduled for the day. She has one too except it says where she is for the entire day. She had half the day in the kitchen, and the other half in the hospital, but she soon found she didn't really like the kitchens much, so we had Coin give her shifts in the hospital with Prim and Mrs. Everdeen. That seems to be doing her some good. Prim adores Annie, and Annie adores Prim.

I hate to think it, but sometimes I think they're both on the same mental age level somewhere between their ages. Prim is only fourteen and Annie's only twenty, but both of them sometimes act sixteen or seventeen. I understand that Annie does it because she's still more broken than either of us would like to admit, and Prim is another victim of the Hunger Games, being forced to grow up way too fast even though she never actually entered the Games. I walk with Annie to the hospital.

"Good morning Annie!" Prim says cheerfully when we get there.  
"Morning Prim!" Annie says just as cheerfully. I love it when she's happy. "I'll see you at lunch," she says as she hugs me and then reaches up to kiss me. I have half a mind to gross Prim out and prolong the kiss, but I don't. Teenagers seem to think that kissing is gross. At least those who've never kissed anyone before. As beautiful as little Prim Everdeen is, I'm pretty sure she's never had a boy in her life.

Training hasn't changed a bit since day one. Until today. Today they're testing our weakness. They're testing to see how we will react in midst of chaos; to the one thing that we normally can't resist. I know that my weakness is Annie. If she was hurt, my first and my natural instinct would be to find and help her. It's what they used against me in the Hunger Games with the jabberjay. It was the worst experience of my life. Now however, I know that no matter what happens, she'll be safe in District 13. Someone will be there to take care of her and keep her safe while I'm away.  
I dread the moment I have to tell her that I've been drafted to go to the Capitol to fight in this war. I don't know what squad I'll be on until after my weakness training, so I won't know how much danger I'll really be in until I'm assigned a squad. My heart races while I'm waiting to be called into the pit. Katniss and Johanna come in.

"You're being drafted too?" I ask.

"They wanted as many Victors on screen as they could get," Johanna says.

"They want some good videos of me, and I want to end this war as much as the rest of you. There's no way in hell I'm staying behind and not going to the Capitol." Katniss says.

"Well we can't have our Mockingjay unhappy then huh?" I playfully pat her cheek hoping she won't feel my nerves.

"I don't know what they think my weakness is. If they're thinking that it's Peeta, they're wrong. He wants to kill me now, he doesn't care, and neither do I." I feel bad for her. I know that she didn't know she loved him, until he wasn't around to love her. Her actions before showed what her heart felt but forgot to tell her brain.

"Well, I think they've got your profile right, you'll know what your weakness is when you get in there." I tell her. I don't want to know what types of things they're going to throw at me.

"Finnick Odair," they call my name. I can't help but to think about how much this is like my first Hunger Games, when I had to go show the Gamemakers what I was made of.

"Good luck to you ladies, I'll see you on the other side," I tell them with a smile. Once I turn my back on them, my smile fades. I hate to admit that I'm afraid.

When I get in there, I'm armed with a gun and I'm suited up for war. I've been practicing a lot with a gun, but no matter what, I will always love my tridents. They send me off into a battle. I'm shooting Peacekeepers left and right. My fake dummy squad is continuing to kill as well. It's entirely real and I've almost forgotten that I'm not actually in the Capitol yet. There's a building on fire in front of us. It's so real. There's a woman hanging out of the building and she's screaming. The eyes –they're Annie's. The face, the hair, the voice, all of them belong to her. It's so real that I want to run to it. I want to save her. I run forward toward the building and her name is about to leave my lips when I remember that Annie is safe. This is just a mutt. My hands come up and I shoot the woman hanging from the building. I fall to my knees and everything fades away. It's just a dark room now. They open the door and call me out.

"Make your way to Command Soldier Odair," they say smile. I make myself get up and go. Command? Did I fail? Am I in trouble for shooting the woman in the window? I knock on the door and I'm told to enter.

"Welcome to squad 451 Soldier," Coin greets me. There are a handful of others here with me.

"This isn't everyone, we're expecting a few more," Commander Boggs says. I figure I might as well make friendly with my squad. There's one face I recognize.

"Hawthorne!" I say.

"Finnick, welcome aboard," he says greeting me.

"Thanks," I tell him. I go around and introduce myself to everyone. Commander Boggs I already knew. His second in command is a woman named Jackson. I don't know how well I'm going to get along with her. That's a strange thought. Having to actually try to get along with a woman. There are a set of identical twins named Leeg. They labeled themselves one and two. There are two more men here. One named Mitchell who seems to be quite the jokester, and a guy name Homes who, like Jackson, seems to mean business but he probably won't be as hard core as she will.

"Our last person should be coming to us now," Boggs says with a smile on his face. I wonder who it is that's coming. Within a minute and a half, Katniss Everdeen bursts into the room with excitement on her face. A fellow Victor. Now I won't feel so alone. I won't be so crazy, because someone else will understand me better. The Games mess with your head. Even I wasn't the same after mine. My thoughts go to Annie again and I can't wait to get done with this so I can see her, hug her, kiss her and hold her in my arms again.

When we're done, Katniss and I hang back for a moment. We know just how dangerous this mission is. I remember the faces of my squad. We'll be lucky to get half of us home alive. I know Katniss and I can survive this. We're two time Hunger Games Victors. I'm also pretty confident Gale will come through, because his mind is a death trap itself and Katniss would give her own life to spare his. She loves him too, but it's different than she loves Peeta. We finally leave, and Haymitch tells us that Johanna's been admitted to the hospital again. I make my way to go see her. It's a little too early to pick Annie up. We're told that we'll be heading out tomorrow and this will be our last night in District 13. When Katniss and I are alone I ask her about it.

"What am I going to tell Annie?" I'm afraid of how she's going to react. Probably with lots of tears and not very well.

"Nothing. That's what I'm telling my family anyways," she responds. That isn't a very good idea. They deserve to know that she's going off into another war much like her Hunger Games and the chances of survival are very shallow. No, I'll just tell Annie the truth. She deserves that.

Johanna isn't in good condition. She still has a few doctors running in and out of her room, and she's pretty heavily sedated but she's trying to fight off the sleep. I'm really glad that Annie didn't have to do this today. I know that Johanna was tortured in the Capitol and because of that she's not longer the same. I don't want to imagine what Annie's weakness would have been. Me probably. I don't want to imagine what it would do to her. Johanna failed hers and I only barely passed mine. This makes me want her in my arms even more.

I only visit for a few minutes before I go up and wait for Annie. I've been waiting for a while and I start to watch the clock. Five minutes late. Maybe she got held up? Ten minutes go by. Maybe it really was her in the pit? Another five minutes. I can't sit here any longer. I have to go find her before I lose my mind. Annie and I meet each other right here every day at the same time give or take five minutes due to how busy we are.

I finally find her in one of the waiting rooms. She's sitting with another woman holding her hand in what looks like a comfort attempt. The woman obviously is upset about something.

"There you are!" I can't help but to say. "What happened? Is everything alright?" I ask.

"I'm alright Fin, sit down and wait with us?" she looks up at me. After the training today, I really just want to kiss her right now. Instead I sit down in the chair on her other side and she places a hand on my knee. This is all I'm going to get until the woman is taken care of.

Not soon enough, Prim comes out holding a little girl whose leg is in a cast. The woman jumps up and takes the little girl in her arms.

"All better mommy," she says. Even I have to aw at how adorable it is.

"Thank you, both of you," the woman says looking between Annie and Prim.

"No more getting hurt little one," Prim jokes to the child. When Mrs. Everdeen comes out, Annie gets to her feet. I'm not far behind her. Prim comes around to stand beside her too. When the other woman is distracted, and the little girl has buried her head in her mother's neck, I wrap my arms around Annie and kiss her neck. I can't quite reach her face and there are other people around at the moment.

"See you tomorrow Annie," Prim whispers. I know that's my cue to be allowed to drag my lovely wife away. Prim waves at me and I lift a hand from Annie's stomach and wave back with a smile.

When we're clear of all people I spin her around to face me and impulsively decide to pick her up and throw her over my shoulder.

"What are you doing?" she demands.

"Taking you to dinner. Any objections will be ignored." I figure we'll have dinner and then I'll tell her and see how things go. She doesn't argue further. Maybe she knows it's because I really will ignore her protests. Either that or she doesn't mind as much as her original tone said she did. When we get to the café I set her down in front of me. Something tells me that if I don't tell her right now, I'll chicken out and I won't tell her later.

"Annie," I want her full attention, not that I didn't already have it. "I'm leaving District 13 for a while. Me, as well as a few others. We've been assigned a mission and we don't know if or when we will return. It's very dangerous and the chances of survival are about fifty percent. I promise you though I will return to you, I just can't promise when. I've never broken a promise yet. This will be out last night together." My face is inches away from hers now because I still really want to kiss her, and I have my hands on her shoulder. She starts to cry.

"You're leaving me?" she asks with a broken voice. I pull her close.

"I'm sorry Annie, it's not my choice. They wanted as many Victors as possible in on this but it's dangerous. There is no way in hell I would let you go with or without me. You'll be safe here and I haven't broken a promise to you all my life. I'll still be with you. On the inside, right here," I touch her chest where her heart is. I will be in her heart as much as she'll be in mine. "Shh, don't cry. I love you. Let's go eat something and then we can go home," I help her wipe the tears from her eyes so she looks better before we enter the café and eat.

When we get back to our compartment I give into all my urges to kiss her, and hold her, and love her, and as much as we try to sleep that night, our bodies have other ideas. This is our last night together until who knows when and she's a little more used to the idea and feeling of sex now. At six am we're laying there together, neither of us are talking or moving, we're just enjoying being next to one another. There's a knock on the door. They've come to get me now. She rolls over and clings to me and starts to cry again. This is breaking her heart I know, but watching her cry, knowing that I don't know when I'm going to see her again, it's breaking my heart too.

"I love you so much. Don't let anyone tell you that I don't. Don't let anyone tell you that they mean more to me than you do because you mean everything to me. Not even my own life means as much to me as you do. I will come back to you. I will. When we win this war we'll go home to District 4. You and me. I love you Annie Odair." I hug her in hopes that she'll feel that I really don't want to leave her, but I have to. "I'm sorry. I have to go, don't cry. I'm coming back," I kiss her and untangle her arms from me while I'm doing so. I wish this didn't have to be this way. "I'm leaving my heart with you. Take care of it okay? I love you," I pick my clothes up out of the floor and leave our bedroom for the last time.

I throw my shorts on as I'm walking, pick up the bag I packed, and make my way into the hallway where Plutarch, Gale, and Katniss are waiting. I can't help but to sink down into the floor and pull my knees to my chest and sob myself. I can still hear Annie in the compartment behind me crying, and I wish I could stay. I wish those tears weren't my fault. It hurts, and because of that I will come back to her.


	22. Annie's POV 10

Annie's POV

The days pass by in a blur. In the Capitol I kept up with the days because it kept me sane, but here in thirteen I don't care. Prim and Mrs. Everdeen, who's asked me to start calling her Helen, take care of me. Prim reminds me I have to shower and take care of myself. She reminds me I have to eat. She reminds me that Finnick promised he'd come back and that I'm not the only one living on a promise. Katniss promised her she'd come back too. I'm sure she's just as upset about her sister leaving her as I am about Finnick leaving me. It's been a few months since they left now.

"Come on Annie, its lunch time," Prim says walking right into my room. I haven't moved out of my bed since this morning when I went right to the bathroom and threw up.

"I don't feel good," I mumble into my pillow.

"It's because you're not taking care of yourself. Come on, let's go eat something. Maybe you'll feel better then." I can hear that the little fourteen year old girl has about had it with me. I sigh and roll over only for another wave of nausea to hit and I'm running to the bathroom. There isn't anything on my stomach to throw up this time. Prim softly walks into the room and pulls my hair out of my face and rubs my back.

"I can tell my mom that you're sick and get her to bring you something to eat," she says. She knows I don't feel good now. The thought of food causes more dry heaves and I lay my head on the wall and start to cry.

"It's okay Annie, you're alright," her voice is softer now than it was a few minutes ago as she sits down beside me and hugs me.

"Prim?" I hear Mrs. Everdeen call.

"We're in the bathroom!" she calls back to her mother. Mrs. Everdeen follows the sound of Prim's voice to where we're at.

"Is everything alright? Are you hurt Annie?" she asks. Prim moves away from me so her mother can see me better.

"I came to get her to go have lunch with me but she's sick," Prim says. Helen Everdeen places the back of her hand against my forehead.

"No fever," she looks at me. "I'll see if they won't let me bring you some soup, here, I'll help you back into bed." She helps me stand and supports my weight as we cross the room to my bed. I curl up in the middle of it and start crying again. I wish Finnick were here. He always knew just what to say and just what to do to make me feel better. Or my mom would even do in this situation. I feel Prim crawl up beside me. The body weight added to the bed isn't enough to be Mrs. Everdeen.

"Do you want me to stay with you?" she asks peering over my shoulder.

"Please?" is all I can manage to say.

"If you're feeling a little better tomorrow, will you come into the hospital?" Mrs. Everdeen asks thoughtfully. "How long have you been feeling bad?" she asks. I don't have the energy or the voice to answer her. "Okay, just try and get some rest, I'll try to bring you some soup. Prim, you'll have to eat in the café with the rest of us." She says.

"I'm alright mom. I can wait until dinner to eat if necessary. I'm not really that hungry right now anyways," They're talking about food again. I gag and then put my pillow over my head to try and drown out their voices.

~HG~HG~HG~

Days pass by and some of them I feel just fine, while others I feel awful. I keep putting off going to the hospital to let Mrs. Everdeen examine me. I'm sure I'll be okay. It's probably just the stress of missing Finnick and my parents. Finally, the point comes where I can't escape it any longer. I sigh as I climb up on the examining table.

Mrs. Everdeen asks me questions that I haven't even thought twice about in a while. She asks about my eating habits; I have to admit I haven't been eating right. She asks about my hygiene habits; I have been taking care of myself there because I've never neglected my hygiene before. She asks about my sleeping and emotional patterns, says she's noticed some changes in them. She takes my temperature and asks for a urine sample. When I come back from that, she asks when my last period was. This is the only question that I have to think about to answer. I never really kept up with it. As I'm thinking she gives me one of her many looks that says she's concerned I obviously don't know the answer to her question.

"It's alright, if you think of it, I'll come back and check on you in a few minutes. I'm just going to send this off to the lab and get the results back," she says. "Stay put." She knows me too well. I didn't want to be here to start with and I don't want to be here now.

I lean back on the table and try to remember when it last was. Something tells me I haven't had one since Finnick's been gone. I wonder if that's normal. Something else tells me that it's not. Ten minutes pass by and finally Mrs. Everdeen enters the room again.

"We have some ideas, the other doctors would like to see you back in a day or so to do some other testing. For now, just go back to your compartment and get some rest. I'll let you know when they want you back. I groan. I don't want to do anymore testing. I don't want to come back another day to do it either.

"You'll be alright," she says as she helps me off the table and walks with me out to the waiting room where I'll be free to go back to bed.

The next day comes around, and I'm awoken by Prim just like every afternoon. It's probably lunch time and she's probably come to remind me I have to eat.

"Annie, they want you up in the hospital this morning." She says. I pick my head up and look at the clock. It's just a little after ten. "Seriously, mom said they just want to run one more test and then they'll hopefully know and be able to tell you why you've been so much not like yourself lately." She says. I don't want to. I won't be able to come up with a good excuse to get out of it. First things first, like every morning for the past week as well as various other times of the day, nausea hits me as I sit up and go dry heave the nothingness of my stomach. I'm worried that I'll start vomiting blood if I'm not careful. When I finally get dressed and make myself look decent I reluctantly follow Prim up to the hospital. Mrs. Everdeen greets me.

"You'll be seen by some different doctors today. They're going to do an ultra sound and see what's going on inside of you. I'll get the results back and if you'll swing by here with Prim after dinner tonight I can go over the results with you. Are you going to be alright with that?" she asks. I'm cautious around people I don't know, but I think that I'll be alright. They aren't total strangers. I've probably seen them around.

"I think so," I tell her just to ease her worrying. This would be easier if I had at least my mother with me. I miss my parents more than I ever thought I would. I never thought I'd marry my best friend and not have my parents there. I never thought I'd lose them at such a young age. I realize that I've lost everyone I care about and I feel more alone now than I ever have.

"Are you sure? Annie?" Mrs. Everdeen's voice cuts through my mind. She gently places her hand on my arm. My hands have covered my ears again and my memories were starting to go back and count the people I've lost starting with the first person, Michael. "I'll walk you down alright? I just can't stay with you." she says worriedly. I nod my head.

When I get to the waiting room of this area of the hospital, I'm shocked at how different it is. I've never seen this area before. The lights are dimmer and there are many machines I've never seen before either. They call me back after I've been waiting for ten minutes and they have me put on this gown and climb up onto a table.

"This isn't going to hurt at all, it's just a little gel to allow the cursor to move over your skin easier," the nurse says. She spreads the gel all over my stomach. It's cold and sticky. She turns the lights almost all the way off and the only light in the room comes from the monitor beside the table where I'm lying.

"Nurse Everdeen said that you've been sick lately and with the tests she ran yesterday she wanted to prove her theory with this ultra sound." She rubs the equipment over my stomach and turns the screen where I can watch what she's seeing. It's a black and white picture of the inside of my stomach. It looks empty. I wonder if it would be able to pick up food, but then decide that it would be silly for them to go looking to see if I've eaten.

"There we are," she says. She smiles at the screen and then looks at me. I don't see anything at first and then I see there's a small dark spot in the bottom corner of the screen.

"What is it?" I ask. Is this the cause of my sickness? Are they going to have to remove it? A million other questions run through my head.

"You're married right? You and your husband have had sex before?" I look at her oddly and then nod my head.

"Well, then that," she points at the screen "is what a baby looks like in its first developing stages." I'm pretty sure my jaw drops open in shock. There is no way that's a baby. The nurse is smiling and happy but all I want to do right now is scream and cry.

"Congratulations Mrs. Odair. I'll just send the pictures that I've gotten back up to Nurse Everdeen and she'll talk it over with you when you see her again." I haven't moved or said a word because I'm trying to convince myself that this isn't real. I am not having Finnick's baby without him. The image on the screen haunts me. Apparently I am, and there's not a thing I can do about it.

~HG~HG~HG~

I go straight back to my compartment after finding out the news that I'm pregnant and I collapse on my bed. I know Finnick told me he was leaving his heart with me, but I didn't ever dream that he really was leaving a piece of him behind. He doesn't know and I don't have a way to tell him. I don't know when he'll be home to tell him. He might die, and I might never tell him. The thoughts are enough to evoke sobs that shake through my body.

Several hours later I'm found by Prim again. She and her mother are really the last people I want to see. Prim is just so cheerful and happy almost all the time. I've never seen her get mad at anyone and I've never seen her be hostile. Mrs. Everdeen suspected I was pregnant yesterday and didn't bother telling me.

"Annie?" she flips on the lights. I put the pillow over my head hours ago.

"Go away," I mumble.

"I'm sorry?"

"Go. Away." I lift my head up enough so she could hear me.

"Are you alright?" she asks concerned. No. I'm not alright. This wasn't supposed to happen. I wasn't supposed to lose my parents, I wasn't supposed to lose Finnick to the Hunger Games again, I wasn't supposed to be held captive by the Capitol, District 13 was supposed to be destroyed, I wasn't supposed to lose Finnick again to fight in a war, and I wasn't supposed to be stranded in District 13 alone and pregnant. The only things that should have happened that did were that I married him and the child is his. The sobs fight their way out again until I make myself sick. Prim brings me a bucket but I haven't eaten anything today so it's only dry heaves again.

"Go away," I tell her again after she hands me a wet wash cloth.

"Why? You need me here." She says.

"No I don't," I mumble into the pillows again. I don't want or need anyone who currently resides in 13. It's those who are dead or who aren't here that I want and need but I can't have them. Prim sits down on the edge of my bed and if I wasn't feeling weak, I'd shove her into the floor. I don't want her here and she doesn't get that. If I felt like I had a voice, I'd scream at her and take my anger out on her. All I can do is continue to tell her to go away and lay here unmoving otherwise.

"Please," I say this time. She doesn't respond and sits there for another moment before she finally decides to get up and go away.

"I'm coming back." She tells me. I'd rather her not. I don't know why I'm angry, but I am. I've almost fallen asleep when there's a knock on my door.

"Prim, please," I lift my head up enough to say.

"Annie, I know you're upset," Mrs. Everdeen's voice says. "It'll be alright. Will you come down and have dinner please? You need to eat something. I'll tell you what," she sits down beside me and starts rubbing my back, "I'll go talk to President Coin and see if she can pass a message onto the squad to tell Finnick to write to you when he can or even maybe let you talk to him on the phone if they've got one available." She tells me. I'd like that I think. I like the idea of being able to talk to him on the phone, but if I have to settle with one way letters from him, I'll be alright.

"Come on," she urges "I know you probably feel alone in this. I'm not even going to try to pretend I know how messed up things have been for you and how hard your relationship with Finnick is and has been, but I hope that by now you'll consider me a friend. I'm here for you if you need anything at all. Prim will listen to if you would rather relate to her better." Her kind words start my tear process all over again. I move the pillow from my head and look up at her. "If you'll come down and eat, then you can come back and sleep until lunch time tomorrow."  
"I miss my mom," I say as I continue to cry. She doesn't ask what happened and I'm kinda grateful for that. She simply nods her head and rubs my back and lets me cry. She doesn't push eating any further and finally I fall asleep.

The next day, Mrs. Everdeen wakes me for lunch.

"Come on Annie, you have to eat and then I want you to come back up to the hospital with me so I can talk to you about being pregnant." I grumble as I open my eyes to look at her. They feel heavy and gross from crying myself to sleep. I want to argue with her that I'm not hungry, but my stomach argues with me and tells her that I am. I don't feel sick this morning though.

"Can I shower first?" I ask sleepily, wiping the grime from my eyes.

"As long as you promise to come to lunch." She gives me one of her looks that says she's serious.

"I promise," I tell her. Half an hour later, she's finally satisfied when I'm clean and I have a tray of food in front of me. I try to smile as Johanna sits down and joins us, but I just can't.

"Rough morning?" she asks me.

"You could say that," I respond.

"Seen the news?"

"Johanna, you've seen it, they've changed their minds three times already. At this point neither side knows who's still running." Mrs. Everdeen says. I look between the two of them.

"What's been in the news?" I ask looking at Mrs. Everdeen. She glares at Johanna.

"They were attacked, and for a while it looked as though there were no survivors." I gasp. He promised! "Relax Annie," she says. "Most of them emerged further into the city. The only lives lost were those of Commander Boggs, and two crew members. Leeg 2 and Mitchell if I remember correctly." I didn't realize I'd been holding my breath until she said Finnick is still alive. Commander Boggs I knew. He was a great man and a leader.

"Who's leading them?" I ask.

"Probably Boggs' second in command. I don't think any of us know who he put in charge before he died. "Coin sent in Peeta as a replacement for Leeg 2," Johanna mentions. That's why I haven't seen him lately. Finnick kept me away from him as much as possible, but really all I want to do is help him. I think I might understand his broken messed up mind. It's different because they actually tainted his memories, but the same because the Capitol broke him.

"Katniss is there. Won't he try to kill her?" I ask with concern. I don't know if I ever really liked Katniss, but I know Finnick trusts her so until I get to know her for myself, that'll have to be enough.

"I hope not," Mrs. Everdeen shakes her head in sadness. "If you're done Annie, we can go discuss things in the hospital now." She says. I was able to forget about being pregnant for a while. I sigh and then nod my head.

"Can I write him a letter for Coin to send to him?" I ask as we're walking along.

"I'll ask her. I don't know if she knows where they are though. I don't know if I'll be able to get her to let you talk to him on the phone or not. It just depends. I know they're still alive right now. I don't know how much more she knows either."

When we get to an examining room where we can talk in private, she tells me that I have to take better care of myself. I've heard that before. She used the fact that Finnick would want me to, over my head before, but now she tells me that if I won't do it for Finnick, I should do it for the baby. She gives me information about being pregnant and a bunch of other things that I'll need to know, but most importantly, she promises that she will help me get through this and that I'm not alone even though I feel like I am.

* * *

**Authors Note: **I feel like i kinda ended this rather abruptly... and i do feel like Annie finding out is a tad bit weird, but ive never had to experience being pregnant, so maybe its just me. *shrugs*  
Finnick's next POV is going to be probably my shortest chapter because 90% of it is in Mockingjay. Im just highlighting a few things and then of course, he lives soooooo... :D  
it'll be up when its written. Thanks for being patient.  
Also, for Hillary Izzy Blair: hopefully i did Prim a little more justice. Annie got mad at her for being so cheerful and perfect all the time. That can be a flaw too you know. Too perfect, too cheerful, it pisses people off. That was for you. :)


	23. Finnick's POV 11

Finnick's POV:  
Things are rather boring here in the Capitol. We don't get to be involved with much action, which I consider that a good thing because the less action, the less chance we have of dying. We are given some real obstacles to get through. The Capitol isn't safe, and when we let our guards down thinking that it is, that's when one of our squad members takes a sharp metal bullet to the head. Dead instantly. The death bothers those who've never actually had to experience it first hand, but as for me, and Katniss, and even Gale, we aren't phased at all. Katniss and I have even killed a few people before. Leeg 2 is replaced by none other than dangerous Peeta Melark. Half of me is glad he's here. I can keep an eye on him and he's as far away from Annie as possible. The other half is worried about Katniss.

Jackson puts me on the first rotation to guard Peeta. He's more cooperative than I'm sure any of us thought he would be. That's a good thing. Everyone else seems to also be worried about Katniss. She's given him a pretty hard cold shoulder since he got here. Peeta seems to be relaxed. As relaxed as the rest of us anyways. This is the Capitol after all. After overhearing a conversation between him and Katniss, and telling him that he should ask when he doesn't understand, Commander Boggs creates a game that he has Peeta play. Peeta asks questions about things he doesn't understand, and one of us tells him if it's a real memory, something that happened, or not a real memory, something that didn't happen. It's to help him get his memory back little by little.

It's not until we're in an emergency situation, when we need him to be calm and level headed, that he loses his mind. Boggs steps back onto an unregistered active pod, and his legs end up fifty yards away from his body. Katniss and Homes are the first on his scene. Something else happens moments later. There's a black tar looking substance that has been released. I see it before anyone else. Katniss gets ripped away from Boggs and Peeta's got his gun positioned above her. Mitchell fights him off only to be thrown into another pod, where he's trapped by barbed wire.

Castor and Pollux grab hold of Peeta and they follow Katniss and Homes and a screaming, pleading Boggs, into a house where we can take refuge from the tar. I don't know what Jackson and Gale and Cressida are doing because there's way too much action happening all at once. It isn't until we're all inside, in a room where the glass didn't shatter, and the cracks to the outside are sealed do, we all take a moment to breathe. Peeta is confined to a closet after Jackson cuffs him, and Katniss is beside a bloody, legless, dying, Boggs.

"What?" I hear Katniss ask the dying man. He gives her no answer. She looks frustrated. I break the silence that has settled over us.

"Is he gone?" she nods her head yes. The look I see in her eyes is fear. But it was gone in the same instance that I saw it in.

"Give me the holo," Jackson demands. Katniss clutches it to her chest as though it's the most precious thing in the world. They argue about it, and Katniss comes up with some story about how Coin put her on a personal mission. I know that's not true only because I know what she's been through, and I know what she had to do to get herself here.

We finally decide we need to keep moving. It's not safe here where the Capitol people are sure to find us within the hour. We trek our way through the black tar like substance that covered the area, until we're mostly clear of it and take refuge in an apartment several blocks down. I idly wonder how many of these people Katniss trusts. How many of them I trust. I hope she trusts me as much as I trust her. Of course there's Gale as well. I don't know about him, but I do know, that if I take him out, that puts me above Snow on Katniss's hit list and I can't afford to die; not when I've got the love of my life to get back to.

We stop and regroup here in this apartment. It's safe for the time being. I don't know how long Katniss is going to want to keep us here. No one says anything as we all listen to the sounds of our breathing. We started out with twelve soldiers, lost Leeg 2, gained Peeta, and now we're down to ten with the loss of Boggs and Mitchell. I liked the both of them. I do hope that we can avenge their deaths. I'm lost in thought about Annie, when the TV makes a high pitched noise. Everyone is on their feet with their guns trained toward the noise. Gale and Jackson aim theirs toward the door after a moment, preparing for an ambush.

"It's alright!" Cressida calls "It's an emergency broadcast." We relax a little but guns are still raised and pointed. It's the Capitol news feed showing what we just went through. The fights on the streets once the bomb blew Boggs up, Peeta attacking Katniss, some of us trying to shoot Mitchell out of the barbed wire net, the chaos that took over once the wave started. Then they show how Peacekeepers have bombed the house where we were before. They proclaim that we have died.

_Annie!_ She's never going to forgive me. I hope that somehow she's missed this. I don't remember seeing a TV in our compartment in 13. I hope that no one will tell her that I'm "dead" because I promised her I'd come home. Or I hope she knows in her heart that I am still alive.

"What now?" Gale asks.

"Isn't it obvious?" Peeta asks shocking us all that he's awake. When the TV went off, all guards on Peeta were forgotten. Thankfully he's still cuffed.

"We kill me," he says. After all he's been through, _now_ he decides to ask for death? You would think that a two time survivor of the Hunger Games would want to keep pushing on. His comment makes me angry. The look of anguish on his face is enough to please me for now though, and its best I attempt to help console him instead of pick a fight with him. He argues on why we should kill him.

"It's not your fault Peeta," I say. He couldn't help that I, we, didn't save him from the arena and left him for Snow. Gale promises to kill him before we let him back in Snow's hands, but Katniss seems intent on keeping him alive at all costs. She still loves him.

We stay at the apartment until after Snow's announcement about how we're all dead, the war is over, and tomorrow they'll pull us from the ashes of the building they destroyed. We see that President Coin and Beetee have a better hold on their infiltrating of the broadcasting in the Capitol and Coin takes over to announce that this war is not over. They will keep fighting until they win or the population is destroyed.

"We can get a head start on them at least," Katniss yawns. She says it, but she doesn't want to mean it.

"Let's start ruling out options then," I say after Jackson shows her how to use the holo better. We rule out the streets, and the rooftop, which means we're shit out of luck, but then Gale suggests we travel underground. Jackson flips the holo to view the underneath side of the city which is far less dangerous than above ground. We all agree that this is our best option. We make way to one of the center compartments that has a tunnel that leads to the underground. Peeta begins to be stubborn.

"Snow's people will find you," I tell him.

"Then leave me a pill" he argues. The others try to reason with him and threaten to knock him out and take him anyways.

"Katniss please!" he begs. There's no way she'd say yes. She's quiet for a moment as she thinks the situation over. She's thinking thoughts only a Victor would have. I see them in her face. She sees how much he hates this, how much he wants out, but she won't give Snow, or Coin, the satisfaction of Peeta's death. He'll live a long life if she's got anything to do with it.

"Are you coming voluntarily or are we going to knock you out?" she asks calmly. He comes willingly of course. Someone asks if we're going to uncuff him. He says no and brings his hands to his chest. Katniss says no and asks for the key to the cuffs. She pockets it before instructing everyone to hop down into the sewers of the city.

Once we're all down here, Pollux begins to have a fit. Crestor calmly explains that the young avox worked down here for five years before his family could free him. It's the last place in the world he would want to be. People don't understand that just because they weren't part of the Hunger Games, doesn't mean that the Capitol hasn't affected them too.

Turns out that Pollux knows more about these tunnels than the holo does. He knows where pods are that Plutarch doesn't have marked on the holo, and he knows when the avoxes who work down here change shifts. We finally make it to a warm room with a clock, that's hidden enough for us to rest in it. He tells us we have four hours.

Most of us are asleep instantly; except Pollux, and those who have the first watch. We change shifts every hour and I've got the third shift with Jackson. I fall asleep only to two hours later wake from a fitful dream about dying and not being able to keep my promise to Annie.

I'm not able to go back to sleep after my watch. I stay up and listen to Katniss do the best she can to communicate with Pollux about the pods that the holo shows. Finally she asks someone if they've eaten, and I hear her open a can and hand it to them. I don't know who it is because my back is facing everyone else. I don't want them to know that my nightmares are back again, except worse because I might never see Annie again.

Finally she says Peeta's name. I should have guessed that he'd be the one she was talking to, but her voice was so normal. There was no sound of hatred behind it. I wonder if this is the first conversation they've had alone. The only other person to hear it is Pollux, who's been up all night, and of course me. I don't know when it is, but somehow I fall back asleep only to be woken again by Pollux and having Katniss shush us all. She hears something that has her bow armed and ready to be shot. This isn't a big room, but I trust that her aim is good enough she won't shoot one of us. I'm nervous about her reaction to something the rest of us can't hear or see until Peeta starts whispering her name and her bow is trained on him.

"Katniss!" he suddenly snaps out of the stupor he was in and his voice sounds urgent. "Get out of here!" he yells at her ignoring her bow.

"What is it?" she asks

"I don't know, but it wants to kill you!" If there was ever a time for a sarcastic comment it wouldn't be right now, but what doesn't want to kill Katniss? She hesitates before lowering her weapon and suggesting we split up. After protests from us all, she decides to arm us and move forward. I did like having a gun as well as my trident, but I give both of my guns to those who need them, keeping my trident close. I haven't had a chance to use it yet since the guns were more efficient.

We've been running for twenty minutes when we hear screams. Peeta immediately flags them as avoxes because he's the only one who's ever heard a tortured avox. The mutts that are after Katniss aren't going to stop until they get her, and anyone or anything in their path is going to die. I wonder if we should all say goodbye to one another now, because chances of us all living through this aren't likely. I know that we'll do our best, but I can't determine who's going to make it out alive. I push all thoughts of Annie out of my head because I know that if I think about how this could be my last hour, I'll think of her and my promise, and I will die. I can't afford that.

"Let me go on alone, I'll transfer the holo to Jackson and the rest of you can go on to finish the mission," Katniss screams. She doesn't want us to die either. I don't blame her, I'm tired of the death myself but that isn't going to happen.

"We're wasting time!" I yell at her. We keep moving and get above the sewer level when Katniss starts to gag. Jackson orders our masks on but Katniss says it's alright. I smell the roses too and know that they're harmless to us, but they're her personal kind of poison.

We're moving faster now, running, trying to avoid pods. Katniss shoots and kills one and we're headed toward another when Messalla who was in the lead is trapped by golden light. Katniss isn't paying attention and is about to walk into it. I grab her collar.

"Katniss!" suddenly she's looking up, and we're all transfixed on the melting of Messalla, before Peeta snaps us all back into reality. We're moving again when Peacekeepers start firing at us. We manage to kill most of them before we turn and they turn, flashing their long scaly tails. These are the mutts that were after us. We get around the corner without activating the pod that's hidden here, and then Katniss shoots at it. Large metal teeth come up and chomp at anything and everything it comes in contact with. It'll hold them off, but these are Capitol mutts. It won't phase them.

Katniss has Pollux take the lead because we need to get out of here and fast. He knows the way around the pods as well as the way out. Jackson, Leeg 1, and I stay a little longer.

"What are you doing? Go with them! You have a new wife to get back to! Don't waste your life!" Jackson yells at me.  
"I'm sorry, I wish it didn't have to be this way. It was nice knowing you," I'd have given her a hug if we weren't in the middle of a life or death situation where seconds count. I sprint to catch up with the others. They're crossing a narrow strip of space that leads over the sewers that bubble with poison. I step one foot on, to find that the surface is slippery. One moment of panic and one wrong foot move and my life could be over. When we all cross, Katniss panics.

"Where are Leeg 1 and Jackson?" she asks

"Stayed behind at the grinder" Homes tells her. She makes a leap to go back to save them, but the mutts pouring from where we just came from, tell us that their lives are already over. I feel sorrow for them and their families, but Jackson spared my life. I'll find a way to avenge her death. We're all scrambling for the ladders that lead to the top. I'm the last one to climb the ladder. Suddenly a claw finds its way into my leg. I let out a scream that I didn't know I was capable of. I feel a hand grasp onto mine and I'm pulled from the sewer, the claw in my leg treading down it cutting the skin all the way to the bone. Katniss yells "nightlock" three times, drops the holo onto the mutts faces, and slams the sewer shut just as the holo explodes.

All of us are trembling. Homes, Jackson, Leeg 1, Castor, and Messalla all died before they could breathe fresh air again. Four more members down and only six of us left. I don't know how much longer I'm going to make it. The tear in my leg will kill me within the hour. Strips of cloth are torn as Gale is patched up and Cressida makes a tourniquet above my knee to cut off the blood supply. Pollux comes behind me and wraps the leg with strips of his own shirt just to keep the muscles and everything else inside it. I look up just in time to see Katniss kiss Peeta. If I wasn't injured, on the edge of death, I might find it in me to tease her later. He tries to fight her because he's slowly losing his sense of reality, but she fights him. She won't let him kill her and she won't kill him. She takes his hand in hers and addresses Pollux.

"We need to keep moving," she looks at me. "Can you make it?" I nod my head and try to move forward, but there's no way in hell I'm putting weight on this leg. Castor and Gale become my crutches. There's one more ladder that we have to get through. It leads to a house and I'm hoping that it's someone I know that lives here. Someone who I know their house and I can help find medicine to help heal us and a way for us to keep moving on. Maybe find some other sort of crutch. Katniss kills the woman without hesitation so that she can't scream for help. It is someone I know. Thank goodness.

Getting up the ladder is a pain only being able to use one leg, but I manage alright and finally we're able to rest. Everyone's emotions take us over. Katniss looks from me to Gale trying to decide who she's going to help first. Cressida makes her decision easy for her when she pulls some medicine from the bathroom, tossing a tube to Katniss and pointing to me. She attends to cleaning Gale's wound.

"Who was it that saved me?" I ask her quietly.

"Gale," she says. "I wanted to go back for the others but he pushed me aside and he went back instead. I'm sorry Finnick," she says as I wince. Whatever she's just poured onto my leg hurts. When Cressida is done with Gale and his wounds are bandaged better, she moves Katniss from my leg and cleans it herself.

"Don't move, I'm going to find some string," she says. I hope she can stitch my leg up correctly. Katniss has moved back to Peeta. She's whispering to him and stroking his hair. Cressida actually happens to be good at stitching up my leg.

"Where'd you learn that?" I ask.

"My mom is a nurse here in the Capitol," she says with a soft but distant smile. We raid the closets for items of clothing that will hide who we are and luckily there's a walking stick that I can use to hobble along with. We follow Cressida's lead out into the brisk cold air. I wonder what today is. Has it really been that long that we've been gone?

Finally we make it to some run down shop that Cressida knows of, after being alerted by the big screens that cover the Capitol, that they haven't determined who it is that is still alive, but they know that we're still going. The woman who owns the shop is one that Cressida knows well because she agrees to hide us in her cellar in the back under a rack. The woman is named Tigris. Fitting for the way she looks. Cressida mentions that she knows Plutarch and we're all relieved that District 13 will know who really is still alive. Finally. We're safe and we can crash until we're well rested. My mind shuts off almost the instant my eyes close.

* * *

**Authors Note:** Okay, alright, so maybe its not any shorter than my average chapters. HE LIVED! YAY! it was difficult to write this believe it or not.

Some parts of this are direct quotes from Mockingjay so credit goes to Susanne Collins for those. But this chapter is really half canon half AU. Finnick Lives! :) from here until the end its more going to be on the AU side of life even though im a stickler for canon.

I feel like its kinda choppy in places, but most of this is found in Mockingjay... so i had to pick and chose what to skip over. Theres not really much squad character development in this because i hope if you're this far in my story, you should know the characters. I always liked Jackson for some reason, so i hope my small farewell scene between her and Finnick is alright. :)

tell me what you think? please?

To the person who reviewed on Chapter 18: I hope that you made it this far and can see this. I want to start out by saying thank you for what you said. I understand you don't want me to know who you are but I would be interested in talking to you more in the future if you'd allow that. I have a few original things on fictionpress. Same username on there as on here. I just feel like I'm no good with my own character development and that it's easier to add my ideas and play around with other characters. And fanfiction is more popular. I don't have hardly any viewers on my fictionpress account. But again, thank you for what you said. Feel free to see and tell me what you think of what I have on fictionpress.


	24. Annie's POV 11

Annie's POV  
Mrs. Everdeen keeps me far away from the TV screens as possible. She keeps me updated on who's alive and who isn't, but she doesn't want me to see for myself.

"They keep changing their mind about who's dead. They've announced them all dead at least twice, and I just don't want you to get upset when they say he's dead if a few days later they change their mind and say he's alive" she tells me. She's probably right. I don't want to ever hear that Finnick is dead. Even if they do change their mind a few days later.  
It's the middle of January, and people who didn't know that I'm pregnant are starting to be able to see and congratulate me. They do so as a gesture to be nice and supportive, but this is all I have of Finnick and the thanks don't make me feel better about the situation. Mrs. Everdeen and Prim continue to be there for me and remind me that it'll be alright and I'm not alone. Still, I feel alone.

I'm lying in my too-big-for-one-person bed, my hands rubbing over the small baby bump on my torso thinking about how much different my life is going to be when this war is over and how I'm not ready to be a parent, when I feel something odd from within. It's not my stomach but it's a small movement. It continues for a moment and it follows the pattern of my hand. I can feel my baby moving inside of me. The shock and the realization that this is real is enough to cause my emotions to become overwhelming and I can do nothing more than begin to sob. I didn't realize just how much I was hoping this was just a dream I would wake from until now. I can't deny or pretend that there is not another life depending on me to keep pushing on, keep moving forward, with or without Finnick.

Mrs. Everdeen tells me that the baby isn't due until the end of July so I'll have a while to get used to the idea that I'm having a baby, and hopefully the war will be over and Finnick will have returned to me. She tells me that if I want to, I can find out what gender the baby is at my monthly check up in February. She says it's new to even her because not all of the Districts have such fancy technology as 13 does. I don't want to know before the baby is born. I don't want to know just how much like Finnick he or she will end up being until I have to know. I don't have a preference, but I refer to the baby as a boy simply so I'm not calling him an it.

Prim is the one who usually wakes me but today, Mrs. Everdeen is waking me.

"Annie," she says softly. "It's almost breakfast time," she says. After I got over the initial I can't believe I'm pregnant stage, they never let me skip a meal.

"Where's Prim?" I ask when I'm awake enough to realize that Prim isn't in the room with us.

"She's in training this morning. They want to send more troops to the capitol because they feel like Katniss and the others are moving too slow. It's been months since they've been gone and Coin isn't a patient person. She wants a team of medics trained and ready to go." Her eyes tear up a little. She's already lost one daughter to this war and now she's going to lose the other.

"What are you going to do after the war?" I ask her.

"Hopefully Prim, Katniss, and I will go back to District 12. If Katniss even wants me there. She's never really wanted me around after my husband died when the girls were younger. She's not someone who forgives quickly and even though it's been almost seven years, I don't think she's fully forgiven me for what happened." She looks down at her hands as I sit up slowly.

"You're still her mother," I say. "That has to mean something to her right?"

"She's Katniss. The only thing she inherited from me is the fact that she's a girl. She looks like Dave, she acts like him, she hunts like him, she sings like him, she is her father and all I have of him. Prim is just like me with the exception that she got her stubbornness from Dave." The tears start to fall. I wish I was better at comforting people.

"Will you and Prim visit me in District 4? I'm going to miss you both when I go back there." I tell her. She nods her head as I hand her the box of tissues I keep on my nightstand.

"Of course," she says. "Let's go have breakfast?" she asks drying her face with a tissue. I lean across the bed and hug her. Now that I'm awake and my little one is moving around inside me again I figure he's hungry.

"I felt the baby move last night," I tell her as we're on our way down to the café.

"Are you excited?" she asks.

"I'm scared." I tell her.

"It's always scary getting used to the idea that you'll have a child who will need all your attention, who you'll have to feed, and teach right from wrong and be there to attend to their every need. I wouldn't trade being a mother for anything. You'll learn. It's scary but exciting and you never really know just how much love you can have, even for your husband, until the first time you hold your own child." She says. I rest one hand on my stomach where I feel him moving around.

We sit down to eat and within minutes we're joined by Johanna. She looks a lot better since we've been here. Her hair is growing back to be a beautiful chestnut brown instead of the darker shade of brown it used to be. Her fierce attitude has certainly come back and she's not so broken anymore. This was the Johanna I liked when I first met her.

"Morning," she grumbles. "Where's little blondie?" she asks using her nickname for Prim. Mrs. Everdeen hates the nickname but has accepted that Johanna isn't going to call her Prim.

"Training," Mrs. Everdeen answers.

"For what? Kid's brilliant enough as it is," Johanna says.

"They're sending a team of medics to the capitol and they recruited both me and Prim. I don't want to go to the capitol. They've taken enough away from me. I'd rather keep my life. I don't want Prim to go either, but she wants to and I think she'll be safe with the other medics who are going. I trust all of them.

"So blondie's going to be a doctor just like you, and our little Mockingjay is going to rule over Panem," Johanna nods her head.

"Careful who you let hear that," Plutarch says as he slides into the chair on the other side of Johanna. "I just wanted to pop in and tell you that we have confirmation that there are still six members of squad 451 who are located in a safe house at the moment." He says looking at both me and Mrs. Everdeen.

"Katniss, Gale, Peeta, and Finnick, are all still alive as well as the two Capitol rebels Cressida and the avox. I'm sure they're glad to have run into one of my inside people. The Capitol people are still trying to narrow down how many of them died in their journey underground. We're all hoping that this war should be over by spring time. Pass the word on to Hazelle that her boy is still alive?" he asks. Mrs. Everdeen nods her head.

"Thank you," she says. She's just as relieved as I am.

"So, bread boy hasn't attempted to murder the Mockingjay again then huh? Hawthorne is probably protecting her well," Johanna says. She doesn't use many people's names. She calls Finnick "lover boy" or "pretty boy." I find it bothersome that she can't just call them Peeta, Katniss, Prim, and Finnick. They have names for a reason. She looks at me with a spiteful comment about to leave her mouth but then decides better of it. The last time she said something awful to me involving the fact that Finnick isn't here to protect me, I ran off crying and the people who were around to hear it weren't happy with her.

"So if blondie's going to be like her mother here, any idea who your kid will be more like?" she asks instead. I shake my head no.

"I won't have the chance to know the gender until February but even then I'd rather not find out."

"You can find out the gender before he's born?" she asks.

"It's the technology here in District 13. They have it in Districts 1, 2, and 3, as well but none of the other districts have adapted to it yet." Mrs. Everdeen says.

"I don't want to know who he or she will resemble more until I have to know." I say.

"So you're not even going to start thinking about names then?" Johanna asks.

"No. I want to wait for Finnick for that."

"What happens if Finnick doesn't return?" she asks. "I'm not saying that to be mean Annie, I'm saying that to be realistic. They all left here thinking that it wouldn't be too dangerous. That the majority of them would be able to return. They left with twelve soldiers, sent Peeta in as a replacement, and they're down to half of them. Who knows how many of those six will survive," she says. I look down at the bagel in my hand.

"If he doesn't return, I'll name the baby after one of my parents, but even then, it might not be before he's a few weeks old. I'm not giving up on Finnick." I don't register that she actually used their names until after the silence has gone on for too long.

Breakfast continues silently until Johanna screeches her chair along the floor.

"I'll see you at lunch probably," she tells us and then leaves the café discarding her tray at the door. I wonder if she's mad, but I don't have too long before Mrs. Everdeen drags me off with her for my day shift at the hospital. Coin gave up on sticking me in the kitchens since she was told I'm better off in the hospital.

~HG~HG~HG~

January turns into February, and February turns into March before we know it. The trained medic team went to the capitol a few weeks ago and tonight Coin wants us all watching the rebel cameras follow the squads into City Square. I sit on the couch in the Everdeen compartment because everyone agrees I'm better off being with someone. Mrs. Everdeen is just as worried as I am because both of her daughters could appear on the screen and the way things are going, survival rate looks almost nonexistent.

My stomach continues to grow and the baby continues to move around inside of me. He seems to be a rather happy and complacent where he can't be harmed. I almost dread the day that he'll be exposed to the surroundings of life. Right now I can protect him. He's safe and can only be harmed if I'm harmed, and here in 13 chances of getting hurt aren't likely.

We watch the cameras move through City Square and see a large hovercraft circle over the front garden where there are nothing but children and teenagers. Maybe to a Capitol person, those children are being protected, but to a District onlooker, those children are being held captive. The hovercraft releases them some parachutes. Finally, they'll get something that they need. There's snow and ice on the ground and over half of them don't have shoes or warm clothes. Mrs. Everdeen gasps beside me. On the flag pole in the center of the yard is Katniss.

She's high enough up that when the parachutes are opened and the children holding them are blown to bits, she's not affected by the flames. The parachutes contained bombs! This angers me. The Capitol has never had any decent value for life ever. I look around the screen trying to see if I can find Finnick. He's not dead is he? Instead we see the rebel medics rush in. There's Prim. She heads straight for a child missing a limb but still clutching a parachute.

"I can't watch this," Mrs. Everdeen runs from the room and I hear her throw up in the bathroom. I turn to the TV for a moment longer to see Katniss rush toward Prim only for her and the rest of 13, and anyone else who's watching, to see little, innocent, sweet, Primrose Everdeen go up in flames as the bomb the child is holding explodes.

My heart drops fifty feet further into District 13 and my eyes get ready to shed rivers. Prim. Gone. Just like that. Katniss had to watch. I look frantically for Finnick but they're showing nothing but fire. It looks to me as though all the parachutes are gone. They send in more medics. Rebel and Capitol this time. They pull the living out of the pen. My eyes land on Peeta. Severely burned from the bombs even though he wasn't in the center with them, and not fifty feet from him,

"Finnick!" I whisper coming closer to the screen. He too has been burnt but he's still alive. They turn the cameras away from him and I feel a nudge against my hand. I look down to see that my hand is resting on my stomach and the nudge came from within. My baby. All resistance of tears is gone. I can do nothing more than sit down in the floor pulling my knees up as close as I can get them, which isn't very close at all, and sob. After a few minutes I manage to pull myself out of the floor and drag myself to the bathroom where Mrs. Everdeen is still leaning over the toilet crying.

"They're gone aren't they? Both of them?" she manages to ask between breaths.

"No. No, Katniss is still alive," I choke. I can imagine telling her that her baby is gone is much like telling me that Finnick is gone. Katniss did everything short of dying, to save Prim's life and even in the end nothing worked. Snow still won there.

"P-p-pri-i-m?" Mrs. Everdeen asks. I shake my head because my own tears have started again. No words will be coming from my mouth. Hazelle comes rushing in the compartment.

"Helen?" she calls. I step from the bathroom into the hallway to see Hazelle's worried face and a crying five year old Posy behind her. Hazelle sees me and rushes into the bathroom to comfort her friend. The older of the Hawthorne boys enters behind her.

"Come on Posy, it's okay. You're alright with me and Vick. We won't let anything hurt you. Mom's just upset. Come back to the compartment," he says to his little sister. All I can think of is what a fantastic big brother he is and that Hazelle did well raising her children. He takes the little girls hand and they leave the compartment.

"Annie, are you alright?" Hazelle asks from her position in the floor by Mrs. Everdeen. I nod my head. "Come on Helen, let's go sit on the couch so that Annie isn't alone," she says helping the other woman from the floor.

"Where'd Posy go?" she asks when we get back to the TV screen that is still playing real time in the Capitol.

"One of your boys came to get her," I say wiping my eyes. The baby hasn't stopped kicking yet. He probably knows I'm upset.

"Feel him kick yet?" Hazelle says muting the TV and looking at me. I've put my head against the back of the couch and I'm looking down at my stomach while slowly moving my hand across it. I give her a small smile. I want to be happy. Finnick is still alive and my – our – baby is healthy and moving, but we just watched small Capitol children be blown to bits. Not to mention Prim, and several other rebel medics, and many others, Katniss, Peeta, Finnick, were injured. Hazelle sits on the couch between us.

"Can I?" she gestures toward my stomach. I'm hesitant for a moment. I don't usually like people touching me, but I allow her to anyways. The baby stops moving as he considers this new touch, and then moves from my hand to hers. It's enough to make me start crying again but this time because Finnick is missing this. He's missing all of it. Hazelle chuckles for a moment before moving a stray lock of hair from my eyes.

"Did you see? He's still alive." She tells me.

"I know," I whisper. She pats my hand and then turns back to Mrs. Everdeen.

~HG~HG~HG~

We get word back from Plutarch that the six who survived the attack before they made it to City Square are all still alive and until they recover, they will stay in the Capitol. The Capitol fell after the children were murdered. Everyone finally saw the capitol for who they really are. Bombing their own children and not protecting the citizens is more than a disgrace for Capitol natives. President Coin announces that she will take over as President of Panem once Snow is executed and that Katniss will be the one to deliver his death blow. All citizens, Capitol and District, are to watch the execution.

Katniss is given a single arrow and placed less than 20 feet from President Snow. They study each other's faces before Katniss gives a single nod, aims her arrow higher up, and President Coin falls over dead. The entire Panem is in shock as to why she killed President Coin, who gave nothing but protection to run away District people, who kept Katniss's family safe, who did more for Katniss than President Snow ever did. President Snow ruined Katniss's life and yet given the opportunity, she didn't kill him. The old man finally did die, some other citizen who had more hatred for him than she apparently did came and delivered his death blow from behind him, but not many people saw it because they were all focused on restraining Katniss.

People come back to District 13 and Mrs. Everdeen doesn't waste any time throwing herself into her work in attempt to grieve for Prim. Katniss is back here for a little while but she soon returns to District 12 with Haymitch. Peeta didn't bother coming back to 13, he went straight to 12. I wonder if that's what Finnick did; went straight back to District 4. He isn't here in 13 or I'd have known about it.

Several more weeks pass and it's the middle of April now. Finnick hasn't called, or written, or come back to me yet. I know he's still alive. He has to be. Peeta and Katniss survived their burns, why wouldn't Finnick have survived his?

"I want to go back to District 4," I tell Mrs. Everdeen one night at dinner. It's only the two of us and Johanna who are having dinner together. That's how it's been for a while. Hazelle and her kids left for District 2 last week, though Gale's the only one staying in 2.

"I'd love to go back to 7 if they're done with me here." Johanna says with a sigh. "There aren't enough people leaving 13 to go back to the Districts yet. I don't know why I didn't go last week." She says.

"I don't want to stay here much longer either. I don't want to go back to District 12 though." Mrs. Everdeen says quietly.

"Come back to District 4 with me then," I offer taking a sip of my water. "They've always had a good medical practice there. Most people from 4 are trained for things like boating injuries and simple other tasks but none of them are as good at everything as you are," I tell her.

"Sorry to butt into your conversation, but are you talking about leaving 13 to return to your home district?" a random stranger asks. I look twice because he's not a random stranger; he's the guy from District 10 who married Finnick and me.

"There aren't enough people to go back yet," Johanna mumbles.

"That's my problem too!" he says setting his tray on the table. "They need somewhere around fifteen or twenty people to make a "non-wasteful" trip. I've heard that there are a few people who want to leave here soon. Plutarch is taking count of how many more people they need. You should talk to him, tell him you want to go home."

"I don't know about you two, but I want out of here so I'm gonna go find him then," Johanna says. "District 7 needs to know that someone's still alive," Of all the victors in the entire Panem, Enobaria from District 1, Beetee from District 3, Finnick and me from District 4, Johanna from District 7, and Haymitch, Peeta, and Katniss from District 12 are all who remain. We were told that all the others turned on each other. Those thought to be allied with the Capitol were killed by rebels and those who were allied with the rebels were killed by the Capitol.

"I want to be home when the baby comes," I tell Mrs. Everdeen. "If you don't want to go back to 12, I'd love to have you stay with me in District 4 until you can get used to the new District and start over,"

"Thank you Annie. I'll want to stop in 12 to get some of my things. I don't know if Plutarch will want to wait. I could always take a train to District 4 though right?" she asks.

"You'd have to ask Plutarch that," I tell her. I don't know how often trains come and go in 4. I never cared enough to pay attention. I just know I'm ready to go home.

"We can talk to him after dinner then," she says. "If he'll wait in 12 while I gather my things then I'd love to go back to 4 with you. Maybe he could drop others off first and then go back to 12 and then take us to 4." She says thinking aloud.

~HG~HG~HG~

District 4 is prettier than I remember. Mrs. Everdeen, who's never actually seen anything outside of Districts 12 and 13 personally, is speechless at the beauty of it all.

"I've missed it here," I say when we arrive in Victors Village. All of the houses are still standing. Untouched. We have help getting all of my belongings, and Finnick's things, and Mrs. Everdeen's things as far as the living room in the Cresta house. This is what I know. I wouldn't feel comfortable moving into Finnick's house without him. I still tear up at the thought that the last person in this house was Finnick and the fact that my parents are gone. The baby inside of me stretches reminding me he's still there. I remember Hazelle had told me that babies react to their mother's emotions, so I try to control them better, but sometimes it just doesn't work. He'll never meet either set of grandparents.

"Annie?" Mrs. Everdeen's voice breaks through my thoughts. "Are you alright?" she asks.

"I'm fine, I've just missed this place a lot. I miss my parents." I tell her. In all honesty I'm afraid of what I'm going to find. Finnick isn't here or else I'd have seen him by now.

"It's a lot simpler than the house in 12 was," she says. I didn't get to see much of the inside of the houses in 12 when I was there picking out my wedding dress, but the outsides looked the same.

"There are only four rooms upstairs. You can have my old room I think. I don't know."

"I know this is hard for you Annie, but I'm here remember. You don't have to face this alone. Are you sure you don't want your own room? If there are four, there are two other rooms to choose from." She says.

"We should go look then," I say making no move toward the stairs. She lays a hand on my arm.

"You can do this," she says. I nod my head and move forward. My room is the last room on the right. It's the first door I open. I find it in better condition than I left it. The lamp is on my table with a fresh bulb, my bed is made, my window is closed. There isn't any glass in the floor from the bulb or even any blood stains. I don't remember if there was any blood shed to begin with. Finnick took care of my room when he was here. There's something on my bed though. A piece of paper. I open it. I recognize the writing. Finnick.

_ "I'm coming home. I love you,_" is all that is written on the paper. It isn't dated, it isn't signed, but I know it has to be recent and I know it's from him. I clutch the paper to my chest.

"Sure you don't want this room for yourself?" she asks again. I turn around with tears in my eyes.

"I think I do," I tell her wiping the tears before they fall. I set the paper on my nightstand and motion for her to follow me.

"You can pick which room you want then. The other we'll turn into a nursery." I tell her as I open the doors to the other two rooms that remained untouched while we lived here. The beds are still made with the capitol bedding and the dressers and closets' are still empty. She picks the one across the hall from mine, next to my parents' old room.

"You're a native of this District, your baby will be too. He might like to have the view of the ocean from his bedroom window," she says as reason for not picking the room next to mine.

"I don't know what to do with all of my parents things that I'm not going to use," I tell her. There's a smaller room downstairs and a basement that like the two bedrooms, were never touched. "Maybe I could put things down there. Not to mention Finnick's things. I'm sure we'll figure out what to do with it all when he gets here." I say.

"Annie, do you think he's still alive?" she asks. "Katniss, Peeta, Gale, they all came back already." She says.

"I'm not giving up on him. He's my whole world. I can't give up on him yet." I tell her. She nods her head.  
"I'm going to start bringing some stuff up. You don't need to do very much lifting. I'll run up and down the stairs and you can tell me where you want things." She says.  
"Just put it here in the hallway to start with. I want to look in here for a minute," I tell her. She nods her head in understanding that this is something I want to do by myself. She heads downstairs as I head into the depths of a room full of memories of my parents.

It's left in the same condition that mom left it in. Her side neat and not a thing out of place while dad's side is littered with clothes and other various projects that he worked on. It smells like them. I sit down on the bed. Mom's pillows still smell like her favorite Cherry Vanilla and when I roll over to dad's side, it still smells very strongly of peppermint. I wish that I could lie on my stomach, but at six and a half months pregnant, that probably wouldn't be a good idea. There's no way I'm cleaning this room out. It'll stay the way it is until I have Finnick to help me.


	25. Finnick's POV 12

Finnick's POV  
When I wake, I find that everyone seems to still be asleep. I see Peeta has been cuffed to the stair posts. I wonder if he asked for it or if he had an attack. At this point I don't understand him. Gale collapsed in the corner opposite Peeta. Katniss is curled up with her head nestled in the good side of his neck and one of his arms is draped around her waist. I don't understand her either. She loves both of them but can't choose one over the other. I sigh as I settle back into the pile I'm lying on. I didn't fall asleep here, but I don't care because it's comfortable.

"Finnick?" I look around to see Cressida is awake. "How do you feel?" she asks. In all honesty? I feel awful. I can't feel my leg, my head is pounding. I'm hungry, thirsty, and cold. I miss District 4, I miss Annie.

"Alright I guess. Is there anything to drink or eat?" I ask. She hands me a paper cup of water and a can of some sort of food. I don't care enough to question what it is.

"How's your leg?" she asks.

"Can't feel it," I say in between mouthfuls of beans.

"That's not good. Can I take a look at it? We have more medicine I could put on it if necessary,"

"Go ahead," I down the last of the beans and finish off the water before I turn over onto my stomach. She tries to roll my pant leg up, but it catches on one of the stitches.

"This isn't going to work. You're going to need to take your pants off." She says. I chuckle and turn to see her face go red.

"Usually I have that done for me," I joke. She turns an even darker shade of red. I carefully turn over and take them off. I struggle a little and she helps me get them over the stiches. Once I'm free of them, I turn over again so she can easily see and work with the back of my leg.

"It's going to need more medicine," she says. She turns to get the tube, and spreads more of the cold sticky stuff on it. I shiver because I was already cold to start with and this isn't helping.

"I can cover you up if you'd like, but you have to leave this leg uncovered so that the medicine will dry and you don't rub it off." She tells me. I nod my head at her and she coverers my non injured leg and my torso.

I'm almost asleep again when I hear the others rouse themselves. I turn my head so that I can see them at least. I don't want to move and get dirt in the medicine that's supposed to be keeping my wound from getting infected. Gale's neck wound is checked and rebandaged, Peeta's wrists are checked, other scrapes and bruises are seen and attended to. When we're all finally awake, and everyone is sitting here looking at one another, Katniss breaks down and confesses that President Coin never really left her a mission. She made it up when Boggs died so that Jackson wouldn't take the holo from her and so that we could keep moving forward.

"You knew, and maybe Finnick." She says to Gale as he tells her that we all knew she was lying.

"I knew what you had to go through to get here," I say.

"I knew you were lying and you were doing a horrible job at it. If I didn't trust you, I wouldn't have covered you." Cressida says.

"I think it would be considered a highly successful mission. We've infiltrated the enemy camp, showing that the Capitol's defenses can be breached. We've managed to get footage of ourselves all over the Capitol's news. We've thrown the whole city into chaos trying to find us," Gale says. Katniss refuses to believe and accept anything until finally Peeta offers his words.

"None of the people we lost were idiots. They knew what they were doing. They followed you because they believe you can really kill Snow,"

"I wanted to stay behind with Leeg 1 and Jackson, but Jackson reminded me that I have something worth fighting for. She knows you have something worth fighting for too, and she wanted you to keep going. She wants this war to turn out in our favor and if it doesn't, you've not only killed them, you've let them down." I say. She surrenders in defeat. I know she hates that they died and feels as though it's her fault. It was their choice to hold back the mutts. To lay their life down for a cause they believed in. I see her consider it all.  
"Cressida, where are we?" she asks pulling out her paper map. It's all we have to go off of since she blew up the electronic holo after Gale saved my neck from those mutts. We decide that getting to President Snow is going to be harder than we thought. Getting him out of his mansion is going to be next to impossible.

"I imagine he became more vigilant after Finnick aired his crimes" Cressida says. Good. Bastard deserves to be hated by his own people.

"I bet he'd come out for me," Katniss argues. Gale and Peeta give her a list of things that could go wrong if we offered her up as bait.

Tigris, the shop owner, rolls the rack of clothing off the door and tells us to come up. That is the end of our current conversation. Getting up the stairs is difficult. Cressida says that the medicine on my leg has dried enough, and Gale helps me put my pants back on. Tigris gives us a small amount of food. If this is all she has to offer, she must not have much.

She turns the small television set on, and we see our faces displayed. They've figured out who died and who didn't. They now know that the six of us are still running strong except they don't name Pollux. I guess as an avox you're really not important to know by name here. There has been no word from 13. They don't even know where we are. When the broadcast is over and we've eaten enough to put Tigris at ease, we descend back into the cellar where we try to come up with a new tactic of getting to Snow. It's clear that we can't go out as a large group anymore since high rewards are being set for our capture. Katniss is still set on the idea of wanting to set herself out as bait to protect the rest of us, but I think she knows that for now, we aren't going to agree to that.

We settle in again for the night. It takes me a while to fall asleep, but I manage alright. My leg continues to throb. I've been trying to put weight on it to support myself normally as much as possible because I know that if we go out, I might need to run. Running on it right now is next to impossible.

We're up before dawn so that Tigris can feed us again and so that we can see the rebel break in the Capitol news. They show that they've sent in more squads and they're deactivating pods in the streets with old abandon cars.

"This can't last." Gale says. It doesn't. The Capitol sees what they're up to and they deactivate and reactivate pods that blow whole squads away. Tigris announces she's going out for the day and she'll try to pick up information to bring back to us. While we're stuck in the cellar, I safely let my thoughts drift to Annie. I wonder if there is any way I could get a message to her. Tigris is in with Plutarch and Coin; she could always send it to them. I decide that I don't like that idea. The letter would go through too many hands and might not even make it to Annie's. I wonder how she's doing; if she's seen the news that I am in fact still alive. I wonder who she's talking to and who's really helping her get through this without me. I hate to think that she has to do it alone. I hope she remembers what I told her before I left.

She's my whole world and I'd do anything for her. I'd die for her if it was necessary. I don't know that she'd want me to do that though. I know that she wants me to come back from this and I want to get back to her too. I will survive.

When Tigris finally returns for the day, after worrying us all for being gone so long, she has fresh hot food. We're all tripping over ourselves and having to keep our mouths closed so that we don't drool before we get it in. We watch another Capitol broadcast, and realize that we have to leave soon because shop owners are being warned that they may have to house citizens who were being evacuated from their homes. After we've descended again for the night, Katniss and Gale announce that we're leaving tomorrow. Cressida and Pollux will go first and make their way to one of the blocks that leads to the Presidents' mansion. Katniss and Gale will follow behind them at a distance, so that they don't get lost, and Peeta and I will lag behind and find a different route to the City Circle. As long as we follow the Capitol citizens we should be alright. Tigris will help us disguise ourselves so that we aren't recognized.

When morning comes, Tigris is told our plan and she gets to work with making us into people we aren't.

"Are you sure that you don't want to go with Katniss and Gale?" Peeta asks me as we're getting ready to set out.

"I'm positive. I don't think they would let me and besides, it's better to be in a pair. You never know when you might need someone to look after you." I tell him.

"What if you lose control?" Katniss asks him.

"You mean, go mutt? Well, I guess it'll be good to have someone with me," he says looking at me.

"Here," Katniss gives him her nightlock pill. "Now we'll all have one, in case you get separated," she says. He takes it and stores it in the breast pocket of the uniform. When Tigris is done dressing us, Peeta looks around for a moment before he smiles and turns to her.

"Never underestimate the power of a brilliant stylist," he tells her. She smiles at this. She probably hasn't heard a complement like that in years.

"Goodbye Tigris, thank you," Cressida says taking Pollux's arm. They leave. Gale watches them to keep an eye on them so they aren't lost. Katniss uncuffs Peeta and hugs him one last time. I'm sure she'd kiss him if it weren't for Gale, Tigris, and me, as onlookers.

"Come on Katnip," Gale says. She releases Peeta and follows Gale without another word. I watch them from the window and allow them to blend in and reach a safe following distance. When that has been allowed, Peeta and I say one last goodbye to Tigris and leave the shop.

We've gone about ten feet before bullets are fired into the crowd. Peeta and I duck down to the right.

"Don't move," I tell him, wincing as the sudden movement pains my leg. Peeta isn't too far from me and he begins to inch his way toward the alley that lies a few more feet from us.

"Come on," he whispers behind him. I have no choice but to drag my sorry self through the snow and the mush and the rocks and follow him. I notice the people on the roofs aren't dressed in pure white, they're dressed in grey. Rebels. Even they can't know we're here.

Finally I make it around the corner where Peeta is standing against the wall. He takes my hand and helps me get off the ground muttering something along the lines of "Took you long enough," Well I've got news for him. I'm still pretty injured. This leg of mine is not going to get me far.

"Are you familiar with this place?" he asks. Of course I am. I have a "client" who lives just on the other side of this alley.

"I know back roads that shouldn't be podded that we can take to the heart of the mansion. I also know people through here that can help us if necessary." They aren't people who I really want to see again, but I know they'd do it. Or, I hope they'd help. We stick really close to the buildings as we run across each intersection, weaving our way through alley after alley and blending in where we need to with other Capitol people. We manage to escape the pods and I wonder if the others were lucky. Cressida and Pollux maybe, but Katniss and Gale have no idea to the lay out of the Capitol. We don't escape the shooting that goes on around us. I finally have to reload Peeta's gun, and we fire back and keep moving as fast as we can. It's not really that fast though.

By the time we make it to the City Square, at least two hours has to have passed. I look up to see Katniss fifty feet in the air as a Capitol hovercraft drops parachutes into the garden that she's in. She did make it this far. Good. I didn't realize I was as worried as I am until I saw her. Parachutes are always a good sign, until they blow up anyways. I didn't know what was on the other side of the wall before now, but the screams and the cries of anguish can't belong to anyone over the age of seventeen. Peeta and I are far enough back to watch as a team of grey, rebel medics rush into the pen to help those who were wounded.

"We've got to get in there," I tell Peeta.

"You won't be fast enough," he yells over the noise of the crowd. Even still, we push our way through the throng of people. We make it almost in, when a second wave of bombs go off and both Peeta and I are caught in the flames.

~HG~HG~HG~

I remember being rescued by Plutarch Heavensbee of all people. He found Peeta and I on his way into retrieve Katniss I assume. This room is obviously a hospital room. I sit up to find that I'm alone. I get up to go to the bathroom and examine my burns, only to find that my leg has healed. While looking at my leg, I manage to trip over my own foot, yanking cords that send a healer running.

"Mr. Odair, you can't just get out of bed like that," she scolds. She helps me back to my feet and into bed.

"Can you tell me what's happened to me?" I ask her.

"When Plutarch brought you and Mr. Melark to us, you were both badly burned. We did skin grafts to cover the areas where the skin was simply gone. You, however, also had the leg injury. There were stiches in it that helped keep it together and whoever stitched it up for you helped you take care of the wound, but it still needed surgery. We were able to successfully operate on it, but you might have to relearn how to walk on it. We can recommend some special doctors for you, and once they see that you can walk on it again, you'll be released from the Capitol." So I'm stuck here until I'm better. I wonder if I can call Annie to come stay with me. No. I have done everything I can to keep her from this wretched place. I won't call her here now.

"How long will the relearning take?" I ask.

"It could take weeks, it could take months. It depends upon the person."

"Did the rebels win the war?" I ask. I have to know.

"They did. President Snow's execution is in a few days. You can watch it if you'd like." Of course I want to.

"When that's over, do you think I could make a trip to District 4 to gather some of my things?" I ask.

"It depends on the doctor you'll be seeing. I can give you recommendations and go ahead and help you get started with the training if you'd like?" she asks. The sooner I can get started and be done with the training, the faster I can see Annie. I nod my head.

~HG~HG~HG~

The doctor I'm assigned to is named Doctor Jim. A simple plain name for the Capitol. I ask him the same question I asked the nurse the other day. If I can visit 4 and retrieve some things. Really all I want to do in 4, is leave a note for Annie. I don't know how long I'm going to be here and I don't know if she's going to go back to District 4 before I do or not. He allows me to. I enter Annie's room and find a scrap of paper. On it I write, "I'm coming home, I love you." and I fold it and lay it on her bed. I go into my own home and grab a small box of sugar cubes and a blanket that I pretend I care a lot about to take back with me, simply so that Dr. Jim knows I actually went back for something other than to leave my wife a note.

Training isn't as bad as the nurse made it sound. I start the first week in April right after Snow's death and President Coin's assassination. Katniss knew what she was doing taking Coin out because the one who took her place, President Paylor, knows what it was like to be part of the crude Hunger Games and then a Victor to follow. She knows that life was never fair for anyone, and I have faith that she'll make things right. The Hunger Games are over.

It takes me a whole month to be able to walk on my leg again correctly. I remind myself I must find if Cressida and Pollux made it out alive so that I can thank them. If it wasn't for Cressida anyway, my leg wouldn't have been able to have been saved and I'd have died from blood poisoning, or infection, or both. Doctor Jim is a decent guy. Of course he knows who I am, I have a reputation not only as a Hunger Games Victor, but here in the Capitol as well. I have a feeling his wife was one of my "clients" I wonder if President Paylor is going to force me back into this, or if I'll finally be free to live a life just Annie and me. That would be nice.

"Do you think you'd be able to help me find out if some friends of mine survived the war here?" I ask Doctor Jim after one of my last sessions.

"Probably, what are their names?"

"I don't know their last names, but Cressida, and then an avox named Pollux. They were part of the squad I was with and I'd like to thank them." I explain.

"I'll try to find them for you and see if I can't have their information to you by our next meeting alright?" he says.

"It's appreciated Doc," I say leaving the room on my cane. I'm almost able to not depend on it anymore. Only two more sessions, and time to say thank you and goodbye to Cressida and Pollux, and I'll be on my way back to District 13 to collect Annie and my belongings and go home. Finally.

* * *

**Authors Note: 8-2-12: **So, for those of you who are just reading this for the first time, the A/N for this chapter and the next one are going to be very backward to you and probably wont make much sense, and for that, i apologize.

For my readers who have stuck with me and are waiting on another update: It's coming i promise. I've just been SO busy. my life has turned 110% upside down and im doing my best to get through it.  
I finally have all of my chapters edited now and i plan to move on to writing my next Finnick POV chapter.

Thank you so much to everyone for sticking with me, being patient, and leaving lovely reviews!


	26. Annie's POV 12

Annie's POV  
April turned into May, which turned into June, and Finnick still hasn't returned to me. I still haven't heard from him. It is starting to worry me that maybe he did die. Maybe he's not coming back. No. I shake my head refusing to believe my thoughts. He's not dead. His note said he was coming home. Granted, I'm sure he meant sooner than this too. Maybe he was just holed up tying up some lose ends in the Capitol. Hopefully the new President, President Paylor, will relieve him from his "duties" there and he won't have to talk to, look at, or touch another Capitol woman.

The nudge inside of me brings me out of my mind. He has to be more like Finnick than I care to think about. There have been times when I've receded into my mind, thoughts, and memories of my Games, and the horrific things that follow take me over. Finnick was the only one able to bring me back to the here and now, but this life inside of me, happily growing and becoming bigger and stronger, manages to kick and move, reminding me that the here and now needs me. My little baby is the only thing keeping me sane now.

"I hope your daddy is back so that we can meet you together," I tell my stomach. The baby moves around without a care in the world. I smile.

Mrs. Everdeen and I are able to go ahead and start storing some things downstairs; things that belonged to my parents that I wanted to keep. She doesn't let me do much lifting or running up and down stairs, but I feel bad having her do it all. There are still a few Peacekeepers around, but they're nowhere near as strict as they once were, and they keep to themselves unless they're needed. They're around to keep order in the District, much like before, but they're friendlier and not as Capitol controlled. We're greeted by one of them who asks that if Finnick isn't coming back, if we'd clean his house out. They cleaned out Mags' house a long time ago when she died during the Quell. Finnick however, has yet to be reported dead.

"Do you know if he's still alive?" I ask.  
"No, I don't. Seeing as though he's one of the more popular Victors though, his death would be pretty public and no one has heard a thing. Assume he is pretty lady," he tips his hat to me and walks off.

We manage to convince them that Finnick is in fact coming home, sometime, and they don't make us clean the house out. I don't want to anyways. Even if he did die, I'd clean some stuff out – things that I know he would want me to hang on to either for his sake or mine – but most I would leave.

~HG~HG~HG~

"Annie," Mrs. Everdeen is standing in the middle of the room she's helped me turn into a nursery. "You still believe he's out there don't you?" she asks.

"Of course I do. I told you, I'm not giving up on him." I don't want to give up on that fact, because my heart tells me he's still fighting, but I don't know how much longer I can convince myself of that. I don't know how much longer before everything, and everyone, is going to convince me that he's gone. He won't come back. The baby kicks. Maybe the baby is like me; still hoping that his daddy will come home to me, to us.

"Do you know the gender of the baby?" I ask rubbing my hand across my stomach.

"Yes, but you said you didn't want to know." She's been good with alternating between referring to him as a boy or a girl so that she doesn't give away the gender. "It's only a few more weeks Annie, hang in there." She looks lost in thought as she looks around at the pale blue walls this room has always been. "Were you planning on painting according to the gender?"

"No, I already know that boy or girl, I want this room to be blue and green. An ocean blue and green," I specify.

"I was thinking," she looks at me and watches me rock in the rocking chair that's beside the crib. "Would you like to see if Peeta will come here and use his artistic skills to paint the room? Unless you just wanted the solid colors," I was orginally thinking solid colors because it's the only thing that I know how to paint, and the only thing I was sure Mrs. Everdeen could paint. I think it over and look at the walls myself.

"If he would, I think I'd like that." I smile warmly.

"I'll go call him then," she says. She leaves the room and heads downstairs. There's a phone in the kitchen and a phone in my parent's bedroom. Neither of us go into my parents' room unless we need something from its depths. That doesn't happen often. She's gone for ten minutes before she comes back to tell me that Peeta agreed to come and he'd look into when there was a train available to bring him from District 12 to District 4.

"That's wonderful." I say. At least I have some support through this.

~HG~HG~HG~

Soon after Peeta comes to decorate the baby's room, turning it into a real life model of the ocean, the sunrise, the sunset, and everything else that Finnick and I both have ever loved about District 4, July is here. The baby is due on the 27th. Finnick is still nowhere to be heard of. I try not to think too much about it as the 27th grows closer, but I just wish that he would come home already. I try to keep my good nature and politeness about me, but I can't.

I find that I'm angry with the Capitol for doing this to me. I'm angry with Katniss for her berry trick in the 74th Hunger Games which lead to the 75th Hunger Games Victors Reaping's. I'm angry with Plutarch for aging the Capitol into the war that took my best friend, the love of my life, and my husband, away from me. Again. I've had enough of the odds not being in my favor. I'm tired of it. Each night I cry myself to sleep because of how I acted that day. My temper has never gotten the best of me until now.

"It's just the hormones Annie, it'll be okay," Mrs. Everdeen tells me after I snap at her for something entirely stupid. I don't even care about the fact that the paint on the kitchen counter is chipped in places, so I don't know why I got mad that there is another chink in it.

My doctors' appointment on the 15th goes better than I thought it would. I was in a good mood compared to the mood I'd been in for the last few days.

"Have you thought of any names yet?" the doctor asks me. Mrs. Everdeen did so well finding people to help her start up a new hospital here. Doctor Areli Fisher was a woman that my mother grew up with. She's known me all my life.

"No, I refuse to give up hope on Finnick. I want to wait for him, but if he isn't here by the middle of August I'll come up with a name myself. I promise." I tell her. I actually have a few ideas. For a girl, I want to name her after my mother. My mother's name was Elizabeth Grace Cresta. I never liked the name Elizabeth, or the nicknames, Lizzie or Beth, but I feel as though the name Grace would be perfect for a daughter. For a boy, I want to name him after Finnick. Both Finnick and his father had the middle name of Cile. I don't know that I want Cile to be his middle name, simply because I don't know of anything that sounds good before it. I still want to wait for Finnick though.

"Annie, as a family friend, I want you to know that I'm trying to look after you. Please don't get mad at this. I know you love Finnick with your entire being, dead or alive, but honey," she places a hand on my shoulder, "I'll give you until mid-August before I'm going to have to start convincing you that he isn't coming back. The rebellion ended in March. This is July." I sigh. Mrs. Everdeen gave up trying to convince me of it when my mood swings changed. I'm sure that after the baby is born she'll try again. My heart and the baby are the only two things that keep convincing me that he is still out there somewhere. If it weren't for them, I'd have given up months ago. I can't find anything that says he's alive still. I have no reason to believe he's coming home, yet, I do.

"Alright, if he's not home by then I'll give up." I tell her.

"I'm sorry Annie. You deserve so much better than this, but by then you have to let it go for the sake of the baby. That baby needs you." She explains. I simply just nod my head.

After that, Mrs. Everdeen keeps a closer eye on me than she did before. I think she too is ready for the baby to come. I'm nervous, yet excited for what this is going to mean for the rest of my life.

District 4 is a District in which if you could get to the hospital in a timely manner from your injury or other reason, you did; if it was too far, you simply delt with your problem at home. There aren't too many accidents that people need the hospital for. Most people here can swim and weave nets. Weaving nets is no different from putting a row of stitches in one's skin. Broken bones usually are delt with at the hospital because there isn't any blood to accompany it. Babies are usually born at the hospital unless you lived more than fifteen minutes away. Victor's Village was placed only five minutes from there.

The morning of the 27th comes all too soon. I wake only to find that no longer am I nervous or excited about this, I'm scared. I know I'll have Mrs. Everdeen and Doctor Fisher with me, so I'll be far from alone, but neither of them are family. I have no family left.

I tell myself I plan to stay in bed today, when my stomach grumbles and my body insists I have to go to the bathroom. I sigh as I slowly make my way out of bed. I'll just go downstairs and stay on the couch all day; sounds more reasonable than having to do these stairs more than twice today. Mrs. Everdeen doesn't go into work today. She stays downstairs with me working on a blanket she started making a few months back. It's a pale green. She wanted to make something for the baby. It's almost finished.

"I remember when Prim was two, she used to sit in the floor and play with the yarn while she watched me work on making whatever it was I was making." Mrs. Everdeen says, breaking the silence. I've stretched out on the couch and put my arm over my eyes to block the light from my eyes. I turn to look at her.

"I miss her too," I say. I do miss little Prim Everdeen's cheerfulness and bubbly personality.

"I miss them both. Katniss refuses to talk to me no matter how many times I call or how many letters I write. Peeta says she misses me, but she doesn't act like it." Mrs. Everdeen says sadly.

"Maybe you could visit her?" I suggest.

"And leave you here alone? As a mother of two myself, I know you're going to need help. At least at first you will." She says. I know she's just trying to look after me, and she's trying to help me, especially since I don't have Finnick back yet, but her statement irritates me. I say nothing as I cover my eyes again and turn away from her. I'm not in the mood to pick a fight.

"Annie, come on, you should go to bed," Mrs. Everdeen wakes me, several hours later, from where I fell asleep on the couch. She helps me up the stairs.

"Just yell if you need anything, I'm not a heavy sleeper," she says as I depart into my room.

"I will, goodnight," I yawn.

~HG~HG~HG~

A few more days pass and its early morning on the 31st that my baby decides he's ready to meet the world. I panic because I've woken from a nightmare. At first I think it might be the nightmare, but I can't fall back asleep and there's pain too.

By the time we make it to the hospital, my water has broken and I have to fight myself to stay in the present. In more hours than I care to count, this little life will be here and will need me to be sane, but the pain reminds me too much of my Games. The heart ache from not having Finnick here, reminds me of the heart ache from missing him while I was in the arena, and the heart ache that drove me into insanity when my twelve year old District partner lost his head and life all in one swipe. I'm fighting hysterics.

I barely register who's in the room with me. I try to stay with it so that they don't have to knock me out. I just have to get through this, get the child out of me, see him for a moment, and then I can allow them to knock me unconscious.

Doctor Fisher arrives after I've been in here for a while fighting myself.

"Annie, I need you to calm down. You've got to. It's scaring the baby." She says after she's talked to the doctors here. She tries to talk to me but all I hear are empty words.

"Keep trying to calm her down, I'll be back," I hear her say. No, why is she leaving? I need her here with me.

"Can't we put her out and then take the baby?" one of the other doctors asks.

"No!" I scream. I don't want them to knock me out. Not now. Not yet. Mrs. Everdeen doesn't let them inject the drug that they're ready to inject at a less than a second notice. Doctor Fisher returns ten minutes later with a handful of things.

"I don't think those are going to help," Mrs. Everdeen says. Doctor Fisher ignores her anyways. She hands me a blanket. It smells like my sent of vanilla, as well as a small hint of cherry that means my mother. She moves Mrs. Everdeen aside and sits down beside me. She wipes the hair out of my face.

"Calm down Annie, you can do this. If you don't we're going to have to put you out for the sake of the baby. You're hurting him." She says. I hear her, but I'm lost in my thoughts about my mother and me. I remember how she fought for me, protected me, even with her last breath. I have to be strong and fight for my baby. Protect him from harm.

"Breathe please," she says from beside me. I didn't realize I'd stopped. She hands me an old, worn, t-shirt. It's one of my fathers. It smells just like him. The smells begin to nauseate me at the same time that they begin to calm me.

"It's okay Annie, honey, one more thing,"

"Whatever you're doing is not helping!" one of the doctors says in exasperation.

"I'm far from done," she says as she hands me the teddy bear that Finnick gave me. It smells like him. I clutch these three things to my chest and sob as she takes my hand. I feel Mrs. Everdeen put her hand on my other arm.

"We're all here for you honey. You can do this. You just have to calm down, breathe, it'll be over sooner than you know. Your parents and Finnick are here with you in spirit since they aren't here physically. They know you can do this." She says. Finally, I find that I hurt too much to keep crying.

Slowly, I think the cloth items helped. I've never felt more exhausted than I do right now. Not even after fighting for my life from the rising water in my Games. I don't pay attention to the doctors around me talking. I don't care. I just want this to be over with. I am however, very aware of the pain in my entire body.

Doctor Fisher was right, it's over soon. Not soon enough, but it's over with the cry of new life ringing through everyone's ears. They take the baby and clean him and wrap him in blankets before handing him to me.

"Congratulations Mrs. Odair, it's a boy!" they tell me enthusiastically. I could hit them for it. Mrs. Everdeen takes the shirt, the blanket, and the teddy bear from me as the doctors replace them with my son. I thought I was done crying, but my tears have turned from hysterics, to pain, and now to joy. My little baby boy.

"You did it sweetie," Doctor Fisher says as she kisses my forehead.

~HG~HG~HG~

They don't end up knocking me out, but it doesn't take more than ten minutes once I've been cleaned up and assigned a room, before I've snuggled my son against me and fallen asleep. I'm so exhausted that I don't have a nightmare at all. Most nights, my nightmares wake me, but I'm able to flip on my lamp and fall back asleep after I've calmed from the heart attack. The crying baby in my arms is what wakes me this time.

"Shh, it's okay," I tell him. I finally take a good look at him. I've rolled over onto my side and he's cuddled lying on the bed against my chest. I touch his tiny face; rub one finger across his cheek. My finger stops when I move it down and allow his fingers to wrap around it. My heart melts. I kiss the top of his head. "It's alright little one, don't cry," I say.  
"Annie?" there's a knock on the door. I wrap my arms around him and turn my head to look at the door. Mrs. Everdeen has entered.

"He's probably hungry," she says. "I finished the blanket and I've brought an outfit for him." I've collected things for him over the time of my pregnancy, and Mrs. Everdeen has done a wonderful job of not letting me see gender specific items such as clothes.

I've known enough kids, and I know what I'm supposed to do to feed him, but actually having to do so seems so awkward now that I'm faced with it. I think Mrs. Everdeen sees that in my face as she sees me watching my child cry.

"It's going to be weird and take some getting used to. I can teach you a few tricks to be able to help you tell until you learn to differentiate between his cries." She says. I nod my head. She helps me work my way through feeding him, and when he's done, I simply just hold him and watch him sleep in my arms.

~HG~HG~HG~

It's the middle of August and my little baby still is mostly nameless and totally fatherless. I at least told everyone that I'm considering names for him. I finally determine that with or without Finnick, I'm going to name the child Cile, after Fin and Fin's dad. I still can't decide on a middle name and I'm still hoping Finnick will come home.

"Annie, you have got to give it up now." Doctor Fisher says at the three week checkup for both the baby and me.

"I'll try. It's not going to be easy though." Something still tells me not to give up, but they're all right. I can't keep hoping for something that will never happen. I have to accept that he's not coming back and Cile and I will have to be alright with each other. I tell them that I'm going to try, but I don't know that I actually will.

Later in the week, I've just climbed back into bed with Cile from yet another night time diaper change, and closed my eyes snuggling him close against me, when I hear Mrs. Everdeen in the hallway. I open my mouth to tell her that I'm alright and she doesn't need to check on me, when I hear her voice.

"Don't you touch that door," Suddenly, I'm aware that there is someone else in the house and I don't want to know what door they were about to open. I panic and pull Cile closer to me so that I'm almost lying on top of him. I will protect him at all costs. I see a light flip on through the crack in the door and hear a shout, followed by the firing of a gun, followed by the yell of pain from a man. But not just any man. Scared or not, hurt or not, I'd know that cry of pain anywhere. I sit up pulling Cile with me.

"Don't bring that baby out here!" Mrs. Everdeen shouts. The gunshot woke him and he's crying. I want to investigate the commotion in the hall, but I don't want to just leave my baby crying.  
The urge to want to see the only man that that could possibly be, now that I hear his voice, overpowers the urge to comfort my son. I put Cile in the baby bed that's located just next to mine, and I cross the room and open the door only to find:

"Finnick," his name leaves my lips and he looks up at me.

"Annie," he says and then winces as Mrs. Everdeen touches his leg.

"You're lucky you got my good leg. After the hell I went through at the end of the rebellion, I'm lucky to still have both my legs," he says to her. "Careful! That hurts,"

"I'm sorry Finnick, honestly. The shock of seeing you made me drop it. I didn't mean to shoot you," Mrs. Everdeen says. "The bullet is still in there. You're going to have to let me cut it out," she sits back and watches him. "I'm sorry Annie. I should have known not to go against your instincts,"

"It's alright," I say, a smile playing at my lips as I take in the fact that my husband is here, in front of me. Finally. He looks up at me again. I sink to my knees in the doorway so that I'm on his level and I reach out to touch his face.

"Hi," he whispers. The smile on his face is enough to make an identical one on mine.

"I missed you," I tell him.

"I've missed you too. More than I ever thought I would," he pulls my face closer to his and doesn't waist a moment before his lips are moving against mine. It's weird tasting him now. He doesn't taste like sugar or fish anymore. There's a faint trace of the salty ocean, but it's nowhere near the same as before. When he pulls away he finally notices the crying baby.

"You had a baby?" he asks.

"I did. Come meet him?" I ask and my eyes flicker over to Mrs. Everdeen who is tracing patterns in the carpet.

"If you'll let me attend to your leg I'll help you in there,"

"It's a boy?" Finnick asks. I nod my head as Mrs. Everdeen and I help him to his feet. When Finnick is settled on the seat at the end of the bed so that he doesn't drip blood all over the place, I cross the room and pick Cile up again.

"It's alright, you're okay," I say to him as I stand there and hold him for a moment. "Nothing is going to hurt you. There's someone who wants to meet you though," I smile as I sit down beside Finnick, turning my arm so that he can see his son's face.

"Annie," there are tears in his voice as I look up and his eyes meet mine. I reach over with my free hand to wipe at the unshed tears. "I'm so sorry. If I had known, I'd have done more to get back to you. Ow! Damn!" he yells. It startles Cile. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he says.  
"It's okay Fin," I reposition the baby in my arm away from Finnick as I try to console him again. "You're alright, shh, it's okay," I tell him.

"Got it." Mrs. Everdeen says holding up a bronze bullet. "I really am sorry. I didn't know it was you. Let me go get some string to stitch this up with and I'll let you alone," she says standing up and leaving the room. I'm still trying to quiet Cile. Finnick wraps his arms around the both of us and kisses my neck.

"I love you."

"I love you too." I smile.

"I don't know how you managed to get through everything. It was really hard for me, but I was busy fighting a war. Fighting for my life. You had nothing."

"I had this," I say making a gesture to the baby. "I had to stay strong."

"And so you did," He smiles happily as he kisses my cheek again.

"I didn't give up on you." I tell him.

"Even after we tried to tell her that she should." Mrs. Everdeen comes into the room again. "Hold still, it shouldn't take long," she says. She takes Finnick's leg

"Try not to scream please," I say. "He's finally quieted down,"

"I'll try," he says. "Can I hold him?"

"When she's done with your leg. I don't want you to scare him or drop him." I tell him. He nods his head and winces in pain as Mrs. Everdeen threads the needle through his skin.

"You would think that this would be nothing compared to what I went through after the Capitol got a hold of me." He shakes his head. I lean mine against his shoulder and reposition Cile so we're more comfortable. I close my eyes and Finnick wraps his arms around me again. I'm so tired and it's taking all my effort not to just abandon him here and curl up in the bed with my baby and go back to sleep. Finnick kisses the top of my head.

"I love you," he says again as he hugs me.

"I love you too," I yawn. Finally she's done stitching his leg up.

"I'm so sorry about this. I didn't know it was you or I wouldn't have cocked it, and I didn't mean to wake you and the baby Annie," Mrs. Everdeen says. "I'll let you alone now. Goodnight. Let me know if you need anything." She says. I smile at her because I'm too tired to lift my head.

"Climb up in the bed and I'll take him from you and let you go back to sleep." Finnick says. I sit up and move Cile to my pillow so that I can help Finnick move into the bed. When he's settled he reaches over and scoops his son into his arms finally able to see and hold him for the first time. I curl up beside them and rest my head on Fin's shoulder already falling asleep again.

"I'm so sorry Annie, I'm sorry you had to go through this alone," I hear him whisper. If he said anything after that, I wouldn't know because sleep decided to take me over again.

* * *

**Authors Note: **Hey, here's an update. :)  
Editing of this entire story comes before i start my next chapter, so it'll be a while before the next chapter is up. I dont plan on changing the content. Possibly the order of words, but i'll mostly be going after spelling and grammar errors so if you're this far there isn't a need to go start over because i changed a bunch of stuff.

7-11-12: All of Annie's Chapters have been edited. Ill edit Finnick's Chapters next and then work on his POV on this chapter. :)


	27. Finnick's POV 13

Finnick's POV

Going back to District 13 requires us to pass over District 4. I want to ask the pilot to stop and let me spend a few hours there before we continue to 13, but I don't think he would allow that. It's the end of April, beginning of May, and as we pass over the District, I see the weather that I've been longing for for far too long. Warm, sunny, the wind blowing through the trees, the ocean tides, the smell of fish and sea water, I see it all and can't wait to be home.

I step off the hovercraft in 13 planning on spending a few days here before I get to go home, only to later find out that hovercrafts aren't leaving this District until they have enough people to leave with. The last hovercraft that went out was a few weeks ago. Disappointed about having to wait to go home, I remind myself that home is wherever Annie is, and I desperately hope that she didn't leave yet. I easily find our compartment, compartment 1052, and unlock the door. I know something is off when I see that the living room is missing the pictures of our wedding that we'd put out. The rest of the compartment has been entirely cleaned out as well except for a balled up piece of paper under our bed.

_Dear Finnick,_

_ I hope you know how much I miss you. I can't wait to see you again. So much has happened since you've been gone and honestly, I don't know how I'm going to get through it without you. Come home soon alright? Hopefully this will get to you. Helen Everdeen said that she might be able to talk President Coin into sending it, but I can't promise that your eyes aren't the first to read this. I've got so much to tell you when you do return. I love you so much. _

_ Annie_

She must have meant to send it to me while I was at war. I don't know why it's crumpled up under the bed. I neatly fold it, and leave the compartment to make my way to Command.

"Where's President Coin? I need to speak to her." I tell the small woman who sits at the desk in Coin's office. As soon as the words leave my mouth I remember that President Coin is dead.

"She was assassinated almost two months ago. I'm in charge here in District 13 now. My name is Karly Barnes. You may call me President Barnes. How can I help you sir?" the woman asks, giving me a '_where have you been'_ glare.

"I'm Finnick Odair. I'm a former resident of this District and I've just returned from the Capitol because I wanted to gather my wife and our belongings and return to District 4. My compartment is empty. Can you tell me if my wife returned to our District and when I can leave here to join her?" I ask, trying to be patient. Even though it's been eight months that we've been married, referring to Annie as my wife is both exciting and odd.

"What's her name? You said she'd have gone back to District 4?" President Barnes asks.

"Annie Cr- Odair, and yes. She wouldn't have gone anywhere else. Unless she was moved to another compartment here in 13." President Barnes sifts through paperwork on her desk until she finds what she was looking for.

"Yes, she returned on April 3rd. The next hovercraft flight out of here might be a while. There are still people here who haven't made up their mind if they want to return to their home District or not, but if you put your name down on this list," she passes me a piece of paper with three other names on it, "when it reaches twenty people, we'll notify you when you can go home." She says.

"That's insane! What if that list never reaches twenty names? I'd rather take my chances and walk back to District 4!"

"District 4 is on the other side of the country. It would be faster for you to stay here in safety and wait. If in three months, the list doesn't reach twenty people, then we'll assume that anyone who isn't on here wants to stay in District 13 and the people who are on here will be taken to their home District."

"Three months? I have to wait three months? Do you know who I am? I'm Finnick Odair. Two time Hunger Games Victor. I just risked my life and almost died in the rebellion. I married Annie in October and we got to spend not even six weeks together. You think I want to wait three more months before I can see her?" I ask angrily. I sweep the papers off the table in front of me.

"Mr. Odair, if you cannot control your temper you will be escorted back to your compartment. I'm sorry that you don't like the new rules, but it's for the safety of the people. I'm sorry to hear that you married and didn't get to spend much time with your wife, but yes, I expect you to wait for the hovercraft departure. Keep in mind it might not be three months, it might be sooner than that. It just depends on how many names we get." I throw my hands up in anger and storm out of the room. Great. I have nothing.

I don't blame Annie for taking my stuff back to District 4 with her. I also don't blame her for going back when she had the chance. I just wish she were still here though. Of course, I don't know how she would have known. I get the idea to write her a letter but after my episode with the new President of 13, I don't think she'll be willing to send a letter out. I don't even know if that's allowed.

~HG~HG~HG~

I'm back on a routine District 4 schedule and like before, I hate every minute of it. Of course now I'm not training for a war. I'm working doing odd things around the District, but it doesn't mean that it's any less infuriating or time consuming. I check in once a week to see if there are any new names added to the list of people who want out of this underground prison like District. There aren't. The only real bonus about being stuck here is that the time I spend on my feet, moving around, the more my leg heals. Sometimes I face difficulties where my leg locks up on me and I can't stand on it, but those events happen less frequently as time goes on.  
There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of Annie. I wonder how she's doing. If the District people are keeping an eye on her. If she's alone. I also keep trying to think of ways to reach her. Letters are out. After a few weeks passed, I finally made nice with President Barnes, but she said that they haven't gotten mail communications set up yet, and she doesn't think they will before I'll get to go home. None of the compartments have phones that will dial out to an outside District, I don't know where to go to find a phone that does, and even if I did, I don't know the number to any of the District 4 Victors Houses. I assume she's staying in her own house, but when we lived there, if I wanted her, I just walked next door. My biggest hope of all, is that she doesn't think I'm dead.

Finally, the middle of August rolls around. It's been far too long that I've been stuck here, and I wonder if I had left 13 by foot that first day, what District I'd be in now. At least in another District I'd have been able to communicate with Annie. There are only twelve names on the list of people to leave the District.

"Alright, calm down Mr. Odair." President Barnes says to me when I pester her about going home. "We're going to have one hovercraft leaving tomorrow. The time will be imprinted on your arm when you get up in the morning. It's the easiest way to let the handful of people know." Tomorrow. I finally get to go home. I'm not sure which one I really miss more. Annie, or District 4.

~HG~HG~HG~

The other eleven people are from Districts that are much closer to 13 than District 4 is, so I have to wait patiently for them to disembark. We stop in District 9, 6, 8, 10, and then finally 4. (A/N: here is the map I used for this: www. Newnoblewoman . ?9d7bd4) In the other four Districts that we stop in, I can see from my window just how damaged each one is. I assume that since this is August, and the war ended back in March, that they probably were a lot worse and this is what they've been able to rebuild in the five months that the war has been over. I wonder what I'll find in District 4. The thought of returning while they're rebuilding was a thought that didn't cross my mind until now.

It's well after two in the morning when we arrive in District 4. I've waited long enough to step foot back on the streets here. The smell of the ocean hits me full on. It smells better than I remember it. I can see it from just beyond the back of the houses here in Victors Village. It looks even more beautiful than I remember it too. I thank the hovercraft pilot for bringing me home and then make my way toward Annie's house. A small piece of me wants to go to my own home, but I've been away from Annie for far too long. The door is unlocked. Not many people do lock their front doors here in District 4. I wonder if the war has changed that.

I hear movement upstairs and wonder what Annie's doing up at this hour. When I reach her room and I'm about to open the door, I hear an unfamiliar voice behind me.

"Don't you touch that door," the voice says. I turn around with my hands slowly extending toward the air. The light flips on and I see that the voice belongs to Helen Everdeen and she's got a loaded gun in her hand. When she realizes who I am, she drops the gun and it fires; right into my leg. In the room I was about to enter, I hear the cry of a baby. I wonder if I'm in the right house.

"Don't you bring that baby out here!" Mrs. Everdeen yells as she bends down to see my gunshot wound. I lean against the doorframe of what I know to be Annie's room and wince in pain as Mrs. Everdeen looks at my leg. The door beside me opens and I look up to see Annie just as my name leaves her lips.

"Annie," I say in response. It's so nice to see her. To hear her voice. Mrs. Everdeen touches another painful spot.

"You're lucky you got my good leg," I tell her, "After the hell I went through at the end of the rebellion, I'm lucky to still have both my legs. Careful! That hurts!"

"I'm sorry Finnick, honestly. The shock of seeing you made me drop it. I didn't mean to shoot you. The bullet is still in there. You're going to have to let me cut it out," she says and then she sits back to watch me. She looks up to Annie. "I'm sorry Annie. I should have known not to go against your instincts."

"It's alright," Annie says. I turn my head in her direction. She finally sinks down to floor level and reaches out to touch my face. I smile and instantly get a smile out of her.

"Hi," I whisper, though there's no reason to.

"I missed you,"

"I missed you too. More than I ever thought I would," I gently touch the hand on my face before I reach over and pull her face closer to mine, our lips meeting only a moment later. I missed this too. She tastes every bit like I remember and I wonder if I taste the same to her. Finally, I pull away. The baby in the room is still crying.

"You had a baby." I say as a statement. For a moment, I want to question who the father is, before I realize that Annie would never be unfaithful to me and with the timing, the only possible father is me.

"I did. Come meet him?" she asks, looking more at Mrs. Everdeen than at me.

"If you'll let me attend to your leg, I'll help you in there," she says.

"It's a boy?" I ask Annie. She said "him." She nods her head and smiles as they help me to my feet and limp my way over to the seat at the end of the bed. Annie continues over to the baby bed that the screaming child is located in and she scoops him up into her arms.

"It's alright, you're okay," she says as she gently rocks him. "Nothing is going to hurt you. There's someone who wants to meet you though," she says. I hear the smile in her voice as she says that and I see the smile on her face as she turns to face me. She sits down beside me, turning the small baby in her arms so I can see him.

"Annie," tears well up in my eyes at the sight of him. Annie reaches over with her other hand and wipes them away before they fall. "I'm so sorry. If I had known, I'd have done more to get back to you." In my head I add: _I'd have left 13 on foot if I'd known_. "Ow! Damn!" I yell as Mrs. Everdeen hits a tender spot in my leg. The baby wails even louder. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," I say as Annie attempts to console him again.

"You're alright, shh, it's okay," she says. My heart melts. She'll be a wonderful mother.

"Got it." Mrs. Everdeen holds up a bronze bullet. "I really am sorry. I didn't know it was you. Let me go get some string to stitch this up with, and I'll let you alone," She stands up and leaves the room momentarily. I lean over and wrap my arms around Annie and our son and I kiss her neck.

"I love you." I tell her.

"I love you too." She says happily.

"I don't know how you managed to get through everything. It was really hard for me, but I was busy fighting a war. Fighting for my life. You had nothing." I say.

"I had this, I had to stay strong," she rocks the child in her arms.

"And so you did," I say proudly, kissing her cheek.

"I didn't give up on you."

"Even after we tried to tell her she should." Mrs. Everdeen informs me as she comes into the room with a needle and thread. "Hold still," she says. Stitches don't bother me a whole lot. I've had enough of them put in before. I've even done some myself.

"Try not to scream please. He's finally quieted down," Annie sounds exhausted.

"I'll try. Can I hold him?" I ask.

"When she's done with your leg. I don't want you to scare him or drop him," I understand. I don't blame her.

"You would think that this would be nothing compared to what I went through after the Capitol got a hold of me," I say. Annie tenses up beside me for a moment. She finally closes her eyes and rests her head against my shoulder, repositioning the baby so they're more comfortable. I wrap my arms around them again and kiss the top of her head.

"I love you," I will never be able to tell her that enough.

"I love you too," she yawns.

"I'm so sorry about this. I didn't know it was you or I wouldn't have shot. I didn't mean to wake you and the baby Annie." Mrs. Everdeen says when she's finished. "I'll let you alone now. Let me know if you need anything. Goodnight."

"Climb up in the bed and I'll take him from you and let you go back to sleep," I tell Annie. She reluctantly moves and places the baby in the bed before she helps me move up in it. When I'm comfortable, I reach over and finally scoop my son into my arms. Annie curls up beside me and instantly falls back asleep.

"I'm so sorry Annie. I'm sorry you had to go through this alone." I whisper. I don't know if she heard me or not, but I know it's not the last time I'm going to tell her that. Damn Capitol.

~HG~HG~HG~

We're awoken by the cries of the tiny body lying on my chest. Annie, with her eyes still closed, reaches over and strokes his cheek. The touch seems to quiet him a little. She puts her little finger in his mouth which completely quiets his cries. I watch as he latches on to another one of her fingers. I feel my broken heart start to melt the pieces together. Annie sighs. She strokes the back of his hand with her thumb for a moment before she gently shakes her finger from his grip and places her hand back on my chest beside him.

"He's hungry," she says. She's yet to actually open her eyes. She reluctantly rolls over and reaches out to take him from me. I really don't want to let him go yet, but there's nothing I'll be able to do to help him. I watch as she cuddles him close against her and begins to feed him. It's then that I realize, I don't think she's told me what she's named him.

"Annie?" I whisper through the darkness.

"Hm?" She's allowed him to wrap his small hand around one of her fingers again.

"What's his name?" I really hope she picked something more sensible than Finnick Junior.

"He doesn't have a middle name yet. I can't decide what sounds good. I named him after you though. Cile." She says. "I didn't think you'd be fond of his name being Finnick. That, and if you didn't return, I didn't want to name him that because it would only be more of a reminder of how much I missed you." I wrap my arms around them and kiss the top of her head.

"Good. I'm sorry I wasn't here. I did everything I could to come back to you sooner. The Capitol and District 13 seemed to have had other ideas though. How old is he?" I think to ask

"What's today?"

"August Twenty-Seventh" at least, I think that's what today is.

"Almost a month then. He was born on July thirty-first." I'm relieved that at least I haven't missed too much. It's so nice being able to lay here and wrap my arms around Annie again.

When she's done feeding him, she asks me if I'd like to help burp him or change his diaper. I want to do anything that helps. She shows me how to hold him properly and tells me that I have to pat his back gently. He's not strong enough to be able to burp on his own and if he doesn't burp, then he'll end up throwing the contents of his tiny stomach up on one of us.

I can tell she really doesn't want to get out of bed, but she gets up with me anyways and shows me where things are on the changing table in front of her closet. I decide to watch her change the diaper this time and tell her that I'll change him next time. I look over at the clock on her table. It's just after six in the morning. When she's done changing him and she moves to throw the diaper away, I pick my son up from the table. I hold him and rock him in my arms for a few minutes until his eyes close. Annie makes her way back to the bed.

"Wait," I say. She stops and looks at me confused. I carefully put Cile down in his baby bed and then cross the room to take Annie in my arms. She gladly wraps her arms around me and rests her head against my chest.

"When was the last time you saw a District 4 sunrise?" I ask her. The last time I remember watching it, was here in this very room with her, just before the 75th Hunger Games reaping, a whole year ago. I can almost guarantee that was the last time she saw it too. She doesn't say anything at first.

"I haven't had the energy to be awake enough to watch it," she says. "Even when I was pregnant, I was either asleep, or awake because of a nightmare and then I only watched as the room lit up."

"Sunrise is in fifteen minutes. Think you can stay awake long enough to watch it with me?" I ask.

"Maybe. The only real sleep I get is when he's asleep."

"Will you try to stay awake? We can come up with a middle name to pass the time if you'd like. Or we can catch up on what happened when we were apart." I'm sure that she'll be able to stay awake if I keep her talking. She sighs, and then moves away from me to roll Cile's bed over to the window. She positions it so that when the sun comes up, it won't be in his face.

"I just want to be able to reach him if he wakes up without having to go across the room." She says. I smile and then climb up in the window as best as I can. The only trouble I have is the bullet wound in my leg. Once I'm settled, Annie climbs up into my lap and leans back against my chest.

"I really missed you," she says.

"I really missed you too." I tell her. We fall into a comfortable silence, and eventually, sometime after the sun has risen, we fall asleep until Cile wakes us again.

* * *

**Authors Note: **Hi! So, first i'd like to say that yes, there is an in-text A/N. I know i know, i hate them too, however i found that it was rather nessesary to add it there instead of adding it here. I know it'll be seen there. Not everyone reads people's A/N's.  
I also know that im pretty close to ending this story. I have Annie's POV on the end of this chapter, and then... i havent figured out what happens next.  
im terrible with endings, which is also why my Percy/Audrey Harry Potter story doesnt have and ending yet.  
if you have any ideas, feel free to PM me and i'll see what i can do with them. :)


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